Zigged when he should have zagged. Maybe trees don't make any sound when they fall in the forest.
Elk off themselves in the weirdest ways. My brother found two defunct bulls in a state park he just had to show me. The two carcasses were 100 yards apart, and the smaller one had been gored right through the chest and simply laid down and died. Evidently, the bigger bull -after sticking the smaller bull- rounded up his cows, decided to charge the smaller bull again. While running down the hill, he stepped into a badger hole, breaking the bone off at the shoulder. Worse yet, he faceplanted his nose into the ground so hard that it broke his neck. What a mess!