WILDLIFE -- Wisconsin whitetails apparently are willing to challenge any bull elk that come wandering into their turf during the rut.

In an early November battle, a whitetail buck fought to the death with a 640-pound concrete elk lawn ornament. Both critters suffered serious damage.

The La Crosse Tribune reported that Mark Brye looked out the window of his home in Viroqua , Wis., and saw the lawn ornament his kids had given him knocked over. Its concrete antlers were broken.

About 20 yards away, he found the carcass of a seven-point whitetail buck with a shattered skull.
 
The buck's meat wasn't wasted.  Under Wisconsin law, the Vernon County conservation officer was able to give Brye a special salvage deer tag.  The warden made a note on the tag: "lawn ornament fight & lost."