Every autumn, thousands of elk do leave Yellowstone, and as they go, they cross an invisible line out of the protection of the national park. Here, they confront new danger. Dressed in orange to avoid each other, but a color that elk can’t see, hunters come to the forests just around Yellowstone in October to shoot elk.

 

Elk, of course, have no understanding of park boundaries or of Yellowstone. To them, this is simply an instinctive/ migration to find more hospitable land, so they just keep going. Beyond the ring of hunting lands, the natural mosaic of forest and grass is replaced by an alien geometry, circles of irrigated grass, squares of maize, golf courses, the signature patterns of mankind. It’s unlikely they’ll be welcome here.