It’s not something you see every day. Owners of a restaurant in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, watched two elk and a whitetail deer playing together as they romped and frolicked in the heart of their small town.
Kim Delozier, conservation program manager with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, said he’s seen similar behavior in the past including a cow elk that wandered off from the herd several years ago to spend time with another species.
“She stopped over in Glenville at a Christmas tree farm there,” he told The Mountaineer. “The guy there had a couple caribou reindeer, and they got along well. They weren’t bonding, just playing. She associated with those animals because they were similar.”
RMEF assisted with the successful restoration of elk into the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2001.
(Photo source: Kathy Garrett)