Too young for antlers

This might look like a domesticated cow to you, but it isn't. It is a young elk I guess to be 1 or 2 years old.

Once eradicated from the Missouri landscape, elk have been successfully reestablished here in recent years. Today you can find wild elk in Shannon, Reynolds and Carter counties in Southeastern Missouri.

The young elk you see is called a calf. Its mother is called a cow. And its father, who grows and sheds antlers each year, is called a bull.

This photo was taken in northwest Arkansas in a cow pasture near the town of Ponca.

AARON HORRELL is owner of Painted Wren Art Gallery in Cape Girardeau. He is a Bollinger County native.