Carol Motsinger

Asheville Citizen-Times

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 forward to watching him grow up," he said. "I felt like I bonded with him. I am crushed that he's gone. I was looking forward to his rack getting bigger and maturing into a bull."

Officials aggressively hazed — meaning they tried to re-train the elk to fear humans — since they learned of the incident with York. They used bean bag guns and firecrackers so the elk would associate people with scary, loud sounds instead of potato chips.

"This fall, there have been several elk that have become food-conditioned," Soehn said. "We have reports of visitors who have been feeding them and the elk have been getting closer and closer. ... that one potato chip does make a big difference."

Officials also darted and moved this elk, but he "came back to that same spot," she said. "Unfortunately for that elk, he was just not responding to that aversion."

Soehn noted that officials decided it was too risky to try to relocate the animal since it demonstrated dangerous behavior that could result in human injury or death.