What is the "rut"?
The rut is the breeding season. In the wild, bull elk will gather a "harem" of up to 40 or more cows to breed starting in late August. The more dominant bulls will jealously guard their harems from other bulls.

A bull elk in rut is a sight to be seen, though not always a very pleasant one. The bulls will rub off the remainder of their velvet and polish their antler on trees. They will bugle, emitting a call that starts low and rises to what really sounds almost like a scream or a very loud whistle. They will use their antler and hoofs to scrape out a wallow, preferably in a muddy area which they then urinate and defecate in prior to rolling around in the stuff. He'll then top it all off by urinating all over his belly and neck, just to make sure he's really ripe. Telling someone they smell like a bull elk in rut is a real insult!

At our farm, we separate the cows we want to breed into groups and then put each group in with a particular bull for the rut. We keep them well apart so that the bulls don't fight each other through the fence (makes a real mess to repair), but we still get the wallows, urinating and bugling throughout much of the fall.

How long is the elk gestation period?
About eight and a half months. Calves are born in late May and June, though sometimes we have a late calf. We had one born in September one year. In the wild, an animal born that late would generally not survive the winter since it would be too small to manage the onset of cold weather. Here on the farm, however, we provided extra hay and grain, and it got along just fine.