In September and October, during the rut, elk often rest, travel and feed intermittently throughout the night. Bulls often continue to bugle infrequently throughout the night, even while they are lying down. By an hour before daylight the elk are usually feeding or traveling. If they have been laying down before daylight, older bulls often get up and make a scrape, raking the ground with their antlers and pawing it with their front hooves while they urinate on their belly, legs and neck. They may roar, bugle or grunt while they are making the scrape. They may also lie down and roll in the scrape, getting the urine laced dirt on their bodies, neck, face and antlers. If they are with cows, the bulls then usually begin checking the cows, and beds of the cows, for the presence of urine and estrogen, which tells the bull whether or not there is a cow in estrus. If the bull finds evidence of an estrous cow it will often pursue the cow until she either runs off or allows the bull to mount her.
My studies on elk show that bulls without cows are quite active, agitated and aggressive toward each other in the morning and evening. They often scrape, bugle, and participate in dominance displays, spar with each other, or with a tree between them, and chase subdominant bulls. Bugling is usually most frequent in the morning from 45 minutes before to 45 minutes after sunrise, with a peak within a half-hour of sunrise, depending on whether or not there is cloud cover; on cloudy days bugling generally increases and peaks later than normal.
The cows meanwhile usually get up and begin to feed, and they may begin to feed in several different directions. This is when the bull begins to go after some of the far ranging cows and push them back toward the herd. Sooner or later one or more cows or calves begin to move in the same direction, and the rest of the herd begins to follow, with the bull keeping the stragglers and wanderers with the rest of the herd. The herd may feed in open areas for up to an hour or more after daylight; before usually moving into the cover of trees for most of the day.
One study shows that, during September, elk lay down within an hour of daylight (probably to chew their cud) then they intermittently travel, bed and feed until about noon, when they bed and feed for an hour or more. They then travel, feed and bed until late afternoon; when they usually begin to feed an hour or more before sunset. The bulls may continue bugling infrequently throughout the day, with a small bugling peak around noon, usually when the cows begin to get up and feed. When the bulls get up in the afternoon they begin to bugle more frequently, and they may begin scraping. The behavior of bulls with cows in the evening is similar to the morning activity described above.
In the evening, bulls without cows behave like they do in the morning, except that they may be more active, agitated and aggressive in the evening. There were times when I was watching the older bulls when it appeared that they just couldn't stand still; they had to scrape, run, spar, chase, thrash a tree, or participate in dominance displays with other bulls. This activity can probably be attributed to increased testosterone levels, and frustration from lack of breeding. This increased activity usually subsided by an hour after sunset. Evening bugling peaked from 45 minutes before to 45 minutes after sunset, again depending on cloud cover. If it was cloudy, increased bugling began earlier and peaked earlier than normal. By about an hour after sunset the cows are usually on the move again, traveling, feeding and bedding throughout the night. The Daily Bugling/15 Minutes graph shows how many bugles I heard from 60 bulls in fifteen minutes during peak daily bugling in September. It also shows when peak daily bugling occurred.
