North American Bull Elk Crossing The Road At Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona, USA Stock Image

Bull Elk, Cervus Canadensis, with a large spread of antlers, was photographed at dawn while crossing the road. It was late summer and the twelve-point antlers had shed the velvet, revealing their hard bony structure beneath. With few predators the elk have multiplied in the National Park and can be spotted easily by the roadside at dawn and dusk, retiring into the deep woods with increasing heat during the day.Elk were fairly common throughout North America until they were hunted down. Today they are found through all the western states and north into Canada. They are called Wapiti by the Shawnee Indians, meaning white rump and belong to the family of ungulates, or Cervidae.