Where oh where have all the Gawkers gone?

Here is a picture of all the Gawkers that I saw during Elk season this year. Well, actually it is a picture from Johnny lake the other day. But it still has all the elk that I saw this year in it. Thats right, none. I was skunked. Not only did I not get to shoot an elk, I did not even see and elk. Actually, I did not see any animals other than squirrels and birds. Which brings me to the next part of my Gawkers and Runners theory.(see previous posts if you have not heard of this theory yet) I think the Runner variety of elk has intermingled with its close cousin, the Gawker, enough that they feel a need to protect them from the strange 2 legged creatures with the big sticks that go boom. They could not risk not running to save their dopey Gawking cousins, so they had to find an alternative means to warn the Gawkers and get them to go into hiding. I think I have discovered what they have done. They are paying off squirrels and birds to warn them! Every time I sneak up to some prime Gawker habitat, the birds and the squirrels start squeaking and squawking like someone just tried to eat their food, steal their firstborn and burn down their house. I don't see any other reason for this odd behavior other than to warn the nearby Gawkers that they need to get into hiding. After all this racket, you can walk into this prime habitat and find so many elk tracks you would think there was and elk superbowl going on. (I think they are getting ready to play the Clydesdales during the superbowl this year.) If you think about it, the squirrels and birds are perfect for this lookout job. They work for very little, (usually nuts & seeds) and they don't have anything else to do all day anyway. So the squirrels and the birds are diligently watching for the two legged beasts to come into the area. When they spot them the start yellin at the Gawkers telling them where to run and hide how fast to do it. Then the squirrels drag some branches around trying to hide the tracks. That usually works because the tracks always mysteriously disappear after a short distance. So now hunting is even more of a challenge. Not only do you have to sneak up on the animal you are hunting, you also need to watch out for those pesky squirrels and birds that are gonna rat you out. This is the best explination that I can come up with for why I did not see any elk at all this hunting season. I saw lots of tracks, but no elk. Those tracks don't taste any better than those big antlers! At least I got some exercise and took some cool pics. Now I just have to hope that the Deer Gawkers have not figured out how to get the squirrels and birds on thier payroll. Stay tuned.