Elk

Last Friday this is what I had to deal with at work at Persimmon Gap. This is Mary. Mary is a semi-tame elk. She knocked over a Harley while trying to eat the leather off of a helmet strapped onto the seat of the bike. She also tried to enter the visitor center. Visitors were putting their arms around her and taking pictures. She was quite the nuisance. She belongs to a ranch/inholding inside the park and they've been trying to capture her for 3 months so they can relocate her to another ranch. If she shows back up at the visitor center, bad things could happen for her. I'm rooting for the ranch foreman to catch her first. She's teaching visitors bad habits. After a couple of hours of Mary, two resource management employees were able to move her away from the visitor center. I had to shut down for a couple of hours to keep the crowds away. Mary is attracted by crowds of people, especially pick-up trucks. Mary managed to make me look a little ridiculous, not that I always need some help with that, but still. Picture me in a ranger uniform, hat and all, telling a group of people to back away from her, that she's wild, etc., and she walks up behind me and nuzzles my elbow, and I'm sure there are visitors with pictures of me with my arm around the elk now. Also, I'd shoo one group off only to find another group surrounding Mary. People. Who'd've thought I'd have an Elk Jam at Big Bend National Park.

(photo is an NPS photo, taken by a resource management specialist)