Elk struck by lightning?

[Bear Wrestler]

I got this picture 3rd or 4th hand from a friend. The story i got was a group of hunters came across this bull wandering around in a daze. They called CPW and were given permission to put it out of its misery. They think this elk was struck by lightning. I can't think of anything else that would cause this damage.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Pre-cooked.

 

[justinspicher]

That is shocking.

 

[Dust Rider]

smoked elk

 

[Bcleck90]

Crazy if that’s what happened. I was close to a lightning strike once and wouldn’t recommend it.

Good on them for calling. Probably did him a favor.

 

[Wrench]

Well....it's grounded now.

 

[Matt5266]

Dang that's wild!

 

[cnelk]

Been lots of documentation of entire elk herds getting killed by lightning.

 

[Bugger]

Could be scabies with how skinny he looks, but could have been a trooper after a ridiculous lightning strike. Glad he got put down either way.

 

[Seeknelk]

Near miss with a 223.77 tmk. Pretty sure.

 

[GSPHUNTER]

Come on man. Experiment gone wrong during an Alien abduction, no doubt about it.

 

[Bear Wrestler]

Could be scabies with how skinny he looks, but could have been a trooper after a ridiculous lightning strike. Glad he got put down either way.

I agree he looks very emaciated. I'm no expert but it does look like burned skin and singed hair along with an open wound on his chest. I would think parasitism of that level would be pretty evident to the guys that found him if that was the case. Either way, I doubt he would have lasted more than another week or two.

 

[Taudisio]

 

[Taudisio]

 

[One-shot]

I got this picture 3rd or 4th hand from a friend. The story i got was a group of hunters came across this bull wandering around in a daze. They called CPW and were given permission to put it out of its misery. They think this elk was struck by lightning. I can't think of anything else that would cause this damage.

I got this picture 3rd or 4th hand from a friend. The story i got was a group of hunters came across this bull wandering around in a daze. They called CPW and were given permission to put it out of its misery. They think this elk was struck by lightning. I can't think of anything else that would cause this damage. View attachment 789131

Probably arced from where lightning directly hit. If it was a direct hit, I don’t think there’d be the burnt hide. One of the local range cattle here was hit a couple of years ago - direct hit by lightning. Not a single mark on the bovine but instantly dead as a doornail. We think the lightning went right through and grounded. Ground beef as it were. I think lightning would have caused heart attack.

 

[T-town]

If alien involvement is off the table, my money is on a too far forward rifle shot. He'd gotten pretty sick and septic causing the hair loss. The several livestock I've seen that were lightning strike kills, their hooves were blown off when the bolt grounded them. There was no dazed walking around in those cases, DRT.

 

[sclb745]

Yea I don't believe this was a direct hit either. It was either arced off a tree/object or other animal if it was lightning. His body looks too emaciated to me and would lean towards septic from a bad shot or he just had something else going on.

 

[Beendare]

It looks more like he was singed in a fire

 

[EvanG17]

Could have gotten caught up in a downed power line

 

[BadDogPSD]

We found three dead cows (the moo kind) on Medicine Mountain (WY) this year. The guy that worked at the FAA radar site said it was lightning kill. He said they lost a dozen a few years earlier.