Last fall I got the opportunity to film and photograph Split 5 for an evening and morning, he was taken by a hunter this past fall.
Split 5 was supposed to be around 13 years old. all his life he was around humans, all his life he trusted humans, the last thing he saw was a human who pointing a gun at him, being on the ground thinking a human shot me. pretty sad huh, Why can't we just not shoot animals that are living their best life, was he a killer Elk? nope. did he harm humans? no he did not. Just living his life amongst us.
All the hunter did was pull a trigger to have his head on this wall, a fair fight would have been one on one, but that did'nt happen.
Just a shame, such a beautiful animal, I made a trip Vacation video, the first minute of the video you'll see Split 5, then skip ahead to the 16 minute mark. for the rest of the Elk footage and photo's. the video is on Youtube, don't know if its allowed to embed video here on FM boards. just search Capnsteve photography there, its my latest video.
Beautiful tribute to this impressive creature. You got some super images of him.
I try to tell myself that in some environments, it would have been another predator like a big cat or pack of wolves instead of man that takes down a magnificent creature like this. Nature has its own cycle of life, and man is not the only predator and we are not immune from that cycle either. Not many animals kill for sport, but its not totally unheard of. I also still say a lot more people would be darn near vegetarian if they had to slaughter their own meat and prep it, etc. The other day I saw a video of a steer using a broom to scratch its back. Seeing that level of intelligence in a future hamburger is more than a little disturbing... but I'll have to get over it as the memory fades, because, well, we gotta eat. Maybe its more about the respect we show for the life when we take one than anything else. I've done a lot of things, but trophy hunting isn't one of them.
Beautiful shots of a handsome guy. Unfortunately you can't start discussions on the pros and cons of hunting this forum. As Fred has noted they turn into endless bickering.
However, in the meantime I think trophy hunters are scumbags, and it is hardly a sport. Those hunters don't understand or care that by killing the largest and healthiest animals they are weakening the very genetic traits that help those species to continue to survive.
Tony thank you for that notice about Fred and not allowing the back and forth topics its been a few years since I last posted here and pretty sure it was just images and not a opinion. Sorry its not just the Named popular bulls, its everytime I see a hunter posing next to a Ungulate. I find it senseless unless that Horned animal was attacking you. and Yes on the Cow comparisons made, we are all hypocrites.
Here is the youtube video like requested above, Stay with it as the footage gets better as the video goes on, I was hand holding my r5II and 600 prime, mostly shot in 8K
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