What is that noise???

It's been a busy bugling season so far.  I asked Jim to describe the bull elk's call to gather a harem and announce his territory so I could make sure I knew if I was hearing the right noise.  He described it as someone playing the recorder, badly.  Yes!!! That's what I had been  hearing, wondering what the terrible noise was.  We hiked in a canyon to catch the aspens in full fall color and we could hear bugling on both sides of the canyon around us.  We finally caught a glimpse of a group of females through the trees, but never caught sight of the bull that day.
During the rut, or mating season, bulls are so overloaded with hormones that they become quite aggressive toward anything they see.  We have a friend whose horse was minding it's own business in a pasture near us and was gored by an elk who came out of some willows and apparently thought the horse was competition he needed to get rid of.  The horse is recovering well, but I think that elk needs to get some glasses.
Animal sounds are interesting.  When I look at a huge elk bull and then hear this high, off pitch squeal I wonder if something went wrong in the genetic code along the way.  Or perhaps God just decided to have some fun with this big bully!  The females like it and we'll look forward to new calves next May.