Elk Population in Decline With Rise of Bear Clotheslines
Biologists were baffled by a slew of elk with broken necks scattered along the plains of Redspork until a photographer captured the cause on film: Bear clotheslines.
REDSPORK, WA—An unprecedented death toll has hit the elk community over the recent months. Corpses lay scattered in fields where elk graze with necks snapped like twigs. The cause of the inflicted damage was finally caught on film by visiting nature photographer, Merkon Tripoli who witnessed a bear clotheslining one of the majestic creatures.
“The bear was with some other bears hiding in the brush. It waited until it had a clear shot, then it jumped up and ran at the elk and blindsided it, catching it right under the jaw with its forepaw. The elk spun like a fan, making five or six rapid rotations before it hit the ground like a ragdoll and never got back up,” Tripoli recalled.
The photographer described a sound similar to “sweet chin music from hell” when the bear’s foreleg made contact with the elk. Researchers have found upwards of 600 clotheslined elk corpses in the last three months. The bear’s well-timed attacks have become even more deadlier than a food or a lightning strike.
The photographer described a sound similar to “sweet chin music from hell” when the bear’s foreleg made contact with the elk.
Tripoli has continued capturing the brutal acts on film in slow motion. His Instagram page is now a library of bears clotheslining elk from different angles in 1000 fps slow motion. A video compilation set to death metal music has already gone viral.
Editor in Chief of BNN. Author and illustrator of Bearmageddon, Axe Cop and the upcoming Dickinson Killdeer’s Guide to Bears of the Apocalypse: Ursine Abominations of the End Times and How to Defeat Them.