Elk are magnificent and surprisingly agile creatures, with massive antlers that seem to extend outward for days.
Not only are these creatures exiquisite and powerful in their appearance, they also have been known to capture the attention of tourists from the mountains of Colorado to the forests of Northern Michigan, all the way up to Canada and beyond.
Elk are also known as the wapiti, and are one of the largest species of the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest mammals in its native range, which also spans across the Pacific Ocean to Central and East Asia.
Simply put, if you see one of these creatures run out onto a road, there’s a good chance that you will become startled.
Recently, a handful of tourists in Ontario, Canada captured incredible pictures of the incredible creatures in their native habitat, and these pictures are so awesome they must be seen to be believed.
Elk Catches Massive Air Leaping Over a Back Country Road in Ontario
The pictures shown below were captured by photographer Butch McLarty, according to the page WhiteWolfPack.com.
Like something out of the cartoon basketball movie Space Jam or the NBA Jam video game series, these majestic wild animals showed off their hops in the most unbelievable way, getting massive hang time while propelling their impossibly large bodies over a backcountry forested road.
Male elk will typically weigh up to 700 pounds or more, but the weight doesn’t appear to slow this one down one bit as he makes short work of a winding road while stunned tourists watch from nearby their vehicles in the background.
Elk can typically be found near swampland or at the edge of forests, and they are usually much more active at dawn and dusk as well.
A mature bull elk has the ability to beat even a horse in a short-distance race, and is capable of running as fast as 40 miles per hour.
Elk can jump as high as eight feet vertically, and apparently they would do quite well in a long jumping competition also, as these pictures show!
Thankfully, the people, and the car, were safe in this particular case!
When it was all said and done, the elk scampered back into the woods, but not before McLarty captured these incredible photos.
“Absolutely stunning,” wrote one commenter on the original post.
“Give him two Olympic Gold Medals on High Jump and long Jump,” another wrote.
If you enjoyed these pictures as much as I did, be sure to share them with the nearest nature lover in your town or on your social media feed.
Thanks so much for reading and have an awesome (and safe) day out there!
