If the elk of Yellowstone National Park had a spokeswoman, she would be working overtime trying to set the record straight about elk-human interactions: Despite the headlines, the average elk has a lot more to fear from the average human.
There are, after all, myriad websites with details on how to kill the mostly docile woodland creatures with arrows and guns, strip the muscle from their bones, or purchase literal buckets of their antlers. There are also parts of the internet dedicated to sharing pictures of people posing with elk corpses.
Twice in three days, cow elk — females of the elk species — have attacked people at the popular national park, using strong legs and sharp hoofs to send unsuspecting humans to the hospital.