Packwood's 'Hammock Head' has done it again, this time with a chair

One member of Packwood's abundant elk herd, dubbed "Hammock Head" by locals, earned regional notoriety for getting himself caught in a hammock late last year and spending the winter and early spring proudly wearing his furniture crown.

It seems the elk enjoyed his fame. Or he's a prodigy fashionista. Or, he's just outraged by lawn furniture. In any case, Hammock Head struck again. On July 30, he collected a lawn chair from a resident's garage.

After trying to locate the elk the previous week, biologists with the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) successfully tranquilized and detangled Hammock Head on Tuesday, Aug. 8 for the second time in just a few months.

A spokesperson for WDFW on Wednesday, Aug. 9 confirmed it was the same elk; he was marked with a yellow ear tag when tranquilized last May.

Throughout his hammock phase, the elk's distinguishable face and hammock crown made posters, motivational signs, sweatshirts, stickers, articles by Seattle- and Tacoma-based news outlets, and the front pages of The Chronicle and Morton's weekly paper The East County Journal.

When the hammock debris remained last spring despite the bull shedding his antlers, WDFW intervened.

Now that Chair Head has been taken care of, biologists are urging caution and education about living with wildlife. Elk that were previously docile can quickly become aggressive when the rut begins in late summer and early fall as bull elk battle one another for females.

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