An elk that butted heads with an Asheville, N.C., photographer in Great Smoky Mountains National Park was euthanized Friday after a YouTube video of the encounter went viral.
That video had garnered almost 1 million views and more than a 1,000 comments, though park officials said the elk had become used to eating people food and was a problem before approaching the photographer.
In the end, the elk was done in as much by Doritos as it was by the video fame, the park said.
The decision to euthanize the elk was a first for the park, spokeswoman Dana Soehn said.
The video “was the first incident that we know of that the elk engaged in physical contact” with a visitor, Soehn said. The footage “was a critical step in the decision-making” to euthanize.
“This was not a one-time incident,” she said. “(The video) was a trigger; the physical contact escalated our decision.”
The video, shot Oct. 20 along the Cataloochee Trail, shows the male elk head-butting James York, who was sitting along the trail shooting still photographs. Neither York nor the elk were hurt.
York said he was “truly saddened” by the decision to put down the animal. “I was really looking
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