Animals do funny things

[xlcc]

A little story that happened to me.
I was out looking for a whitetail buck carrying my rattling antlers with me.I had a spot in mind and hiked into the location.After sizing things up I sat on a downed poplar log with my back leaning against a poplar tree.This spot looked perfect,a meadow that was fairly open for about a hundred yards or so with lots of willows clumps dispersed and mostly poplars and willows surrounding the meadow.There are a few game trails entering the meadow.I walked along one of these trails near the river behind my sitting location.
The rattling antlers are a heavy set so the noise really carries a long ways.After sitting for 15 minutes just watching I went through a short rattling sequence then set the antlers beside me.I was holding my rifle ready for action on my lap.
About 5 minutes goes by and I can see some movement in the bush to my left.Six elk appear.A large bull and some cows and calves.They slowly feed across the meadow in front of me.The bull starts raking a tall willow bush just to my right no more than 50 yards away.
I am camoed up with a ball cap on my head.I have my head tilted gown so I can just see under the brim of my hat watching the herd move around.
This is the fun part.A calf slowly feeds over by me.She is very close as I can see her feet beside me.The calf leans ahead and picks up one of my rattling antlers in it's mouth.Now she lifts it up off the ground beside me and when the leather thong tying the antlers together for carrying over my shoulder tightened up, the weight of the other antler caused the one in her mouth to pull out and it came down hard on the other antler with a clash.The elk bolted about 15 feet then spun around to face me.
Curious as to what happened the calf slowly came back to me.As she approached I kept lowering my head so she would not see my eyes.She now stood so close to me all I could see was her front feet standing in front of my boots just inches away.
Believe it or not the next thing she does is reach down and started licking my knee.I sit there motionless watching her nose and tongue.
In the meantime I can hear the bull torturing the willow tree and the rest of the heard breaking branches on the ground nearby.Gradually they moved off and the calf followed the herd.

I am sure the peanut gallery has some more stories too.Lets hear them!

[Johnny G1]

Neat story but the young one's don't know much???

[Patman7]

That is an awesome experience! I have had mule deer Does and fawns come up to me, squat down and have a pee, almost burnt my nose it was so strong! Coyote just about jumped out of it's skin when it realized I was there! The older I get, I realize just how social and smart most animals are, almost hard to kill them sometimes but I do enjoy eating the organic meat!

[Coyote]

I was shooting my recurve in my back yard a few months ago. I was at full draw, about to drop the string when a humming bird landed on my arrow. I managed not to release but stood there at full draw. After I got over the initial surprise I started to laugh and he finally buggered off. He had no clue that he was a nanosecond from obliteration.

[Keta1969]

I watched a herd of elk bed down on a deactivated road. 2 bulls and several cows. I knew i could get close as the wind would be right in my face so I headed up the hill. Took about 45 mins and i was laying on the road with the only bull I could see in the cross hairs. They were all bedded when I let fly, he tried to get up so gave him 2 more and the bull was done. When I walked up the cows were still laying down, they slowly stood up and I was surrounded, I even reached out with my foot and gave one a tap on the butt that was still laying down. Then the other bull let out a bugle and got them all moving.