Why Do Elk Bugle? The Sound of the Elk Rut Explained

What does an elk bugle sound like?

A bugle is one of the strangest sounds made by any large mammal. A typical call starts as a low, rough bellow, climbs quickly into a long, high, pure whistle, and often ends in a series of deep grunts or “chuckles”. The whole call usually lasts a few seconds.

What surprises most people is the pitch. An adult elk bull weighs several hundred kilograms, yet its whistle sounds more like a bird or a squeaky gate than a big deer. By comparison, a European red deer stag, a close relative, makes a deep roar. Bugles vary from bull to bull in length, pitch and roughness, so a valley full of calling elk sounds like a chorus rather than a single voice.

Why bull elk bugle

Bugling serves two main jobs during the rut, which runs from late August into October.

• Attracting cows. A bull that bugles often and loudly shows that he is healthy and has energy to spare. Cows are drawn toward a strong, active bull, and the calls help bring scattered females into his group.
• Warning rivals. Bugles tell other bulls where a harem holder is and how strong he might be. Bulls answer each other back and forth, which lets them judge a rival without fighting. A smaller bull that hears a powerful bugle may decide not to approach.

Bulls also bugle when they chase a rival away, when they herd a cow back into the group and sometimes simply when they hear another bull. In a busy rut area, the calling can sound almost constant.

Harems and the elk rut

A harem is a group of cows that a single bull gathers and guards during the rut. Harems usually hold several cows to about 20 or more, and the bull spends his time circling them, bugling, sniffing for cows ready to mate and driving off younger males.

Bugling is only one of his displays. Bulls also:

• wallow in mud soaked with their own urine, which gives them a strong smell that seems to attract cows
• thrash shrubs and small trees with their antlers, often carrying grass and branches on their antler tips
• walk side by side with a rival to compare size before any fight

If two well-matched bulls refuse to back down, they lock antlers and push. Most contests end quickly, but injuries, broken antlers and occasionally deaths do happen. A bull defending a harem eats little and can lose a large share of his body fat over the rut, which leaves him weak going into winter.

Younger bulls with small or unbranched “spike” antlers also bugle, but their calls are usually thinner and less confident. They rarely hold a harem and tend to hang around the edges, hoping for a chance to mate while the big bull is distracted.

How elk make such a high sound

For a long time, the bugle puzzled scientists, because large animals usually have deep voices. Research on wapiti calls has shown that a bugle often contains two sounds at the same time: a very high whistle-like tone that can rise above 1,000 hertz, and a much lower, growling tone of around 150 hertz.

The low growl comes from the larynx, the voice box, in the normal way. How the high part is made is still being studied. One leading explanation is that the bull forces air at high pressure through a narrow part of the nasal passages, producing a whistle. Whatever the exact mechanism, the result is a call that carries well across open meadows and mountain valleys, where elk often gather in fall.

The bugle also includes visual signals. A calling bull stretches his neck forward, raises his nose and curls his upper lip, and his breath shows as a cloud on cold mornings. The pale rump and dark, shaggy neck mane make him easy to spot as he calls.

Where and when to hear elk bugling

The best time to hear elk is from early September to early October, at dawn and dusk on calm days. Well-known places include:

In Europe, the closest experience is the red deer rut, when stags roar in parks and Highland glens from late September to October; see when is the red deer rut? Yellowstone is also one of the best all-round places to watch wildlife; see animals of Yellowstone.

Watching the rut safely

Bulls in rut are full of hormones, restless and unpredictable. They can charge people, cars and even objects that seem to challenge them. Cows with calves can also be protective. Park rangers in places such as Yellowstone ask visitors to stay at least 25 yards (23 m) from elk, and more is better. Watch from a vehicle or an official pullout, use binoculars or a long lens, and never walk between a bull and his cows. If an elk changes its behavior because of you, you are too close.

Myths and facts about elk bugles

• Myth: Bugling elk are angry. Bugling is mainly a mating and status call, not a sign of anger, although an aroused bull can be aggressive.
• Myth: Only the biggest bulls bugle. Bulls of many ages bugle; the biggest simply tend to call more and more powerfully.
• Fact: Elk are not the only deer that call in the rut. Red deer stags roar, fallow bucks groan and moose bulls grunt, but the high whistle of the elk is unique among them.