An elk was euthanized after it was featured in a video that went viral this week. Officials from Great Smoky Mountains Park put the animal down after it was seen interacting with a photographer.
James York was seen in a video sitting on a road in North Carolina as a young bull elk nudged and head-butted him. The video went viral and spread throughout Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
However the fascinating encounter was seen as a danger to biologists. "By initiating physical contact with a visitor, the elk displayed an unacceptable risk to human safety," a park statement released Monday said according to CNN.
The elk in the Cataloochee area of the park had lost his instinctive fear of humans because people kept feeding him.
"After becoming food conditioned, the elk did not respond to any attempts to keep it out of the area and away from humans," park officials said according to CNN. "When wildlife exhibits this behavior it often escalates to more aggressive behavior creating a dangerous situation for visitors." The elk would often approach humans to get food.
Biologists decided to euthanize the elk on Friday. Officials claim they knew how close the elk was getting to humans even before the video was released.
"Between September and last week, park biologists aggressively hazed this elk 28 times to discourage it from approaching the road and visitors," they said. "They captured, sedated, tagged, and re-released it on site." The behavior that it learned from park visitors who had given it food had been too strongly ingrained," meaning the elk likely wouldn't stop approaching humans.
York, the man in the video, was hunched over and stayed still during the encounter. He wasn't injured but park officials were fearful of what would have happened if the elk approached a child instead.
This was the first time an elk was euthanized in the park since they were brought there 13 years ago after disappearing from the region in the mid-1800s.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
