Banff National Park is reminding visitors to keep their distance from elk as rutting season gets underway.<\/p>\n
The annual mating season runs through mid-October, with Parks Canada warning that bull elk can become extremely aggressive while protecting their harems.<\/p>\n
Keep your distance from elk<\/p>\n
Visitors are being reminded to stay at least 30 metres away from all elk and never get between a bull and a group of females.<\/p>\n
Parks Canada also warns drivers not to park between a male elk and females, as the animals may charge vehicles and cause damage.<\/p>\n
RELATED STORIES:\u00a0<\/p>\n
Hikers are encouraged to travel in groups, watch for elk and detour around them when possible. Dogs should be kept on a leash, as an unleashed dog may cause an elk to become aggressive.<\/p>\n
What to do if an elk approaches<\/p>\n
If an elk gets too close, Parks Canada advises people to make themselves appear larger by raising their arms or an object such as a jacket or umbrella.<\/p>\n
Maintain eye contact, don’t turn your back or run, and slowly back away. Visitors can also put a tree, large rock or other object between themselves and the elk.<\/p>\n
If knocked down, Parks Canada says to get up and move to cover or use an object for protection. Visitors are specifically advised not to play dead.<\/p>\n
Any incidents involving aggressive elk should be reported to Banff Dispatch at 403-762-1470.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Banff National Park is reminding visitors to keep their distance from elk as rutting season gets underway. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913080,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[49,48,66,323],"class_list":["post-913079","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913079","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=913079"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913079\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913080"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913079"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913079"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913079"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}