Rag-tag elk spiffing up for summer

WILDLIFE — Elk are in a big transition.  They’re shedding their thick insulating winter coats for the shinier, sleeker, more bug-proof summer coats, as you can see in this photo made last week by Western Montana wildlife photographer Jaime Johnson .

Bulls are sprouting antlers, one of the fastest growing tissues found in mammnals.  are shedding their winter coats.

And cow are in the process of dropping calves for the 2012 crop.