The majestic bull elk

I recently made a short trip to Arkansas, hoping to photograph an elk.

Arkansas Game and Fish Commission records from 2011 state 112 Rocky Mountain elk were released in Arkansas in an extended restoration effort between 1981 and 1985.

These elk were brought from Colorado and Nebraska.

They were released at strategic locations along the Buffalo River.

Since then, a slow and steady increase in the Arkansas elk herd has been realized, with a recent estimate of about 800 free-roaming wild animals in the Buffalo River area of the Arkansas Boston Mountains.

I captured this image as the bull walked past me from a field into a wooded area.

This bull will drop his antlers next spring and immediately begin to grow new and larger ones. A female elk is called a cow.

Cow elk do not grow antlers.