Elk is a large deer of North America and central and eastern Asia. It is also called wapiti, a name originally used by the Shawnee people. But early English colonists called this animal elk, and this name is still commonly used. Elk is also the name used in Europe for the animal North Americans call a moose. Wapiti and moose are both kinds of deer, but they are not the same animal. Some prehistoric deer have also been called elk.
The wapiti.
The bull (male) of this species stands about 5 feet (1.5 meters) high at the shoulder and may weigh from 700 to 1,100 pounds (320 to 500 kilograms). Its rounded antlers can spread more than 5 feet (1.5 meters). The antlers of a grown bull have a total of about 12 to 14 points. Antlers grow during the spring and summer and are shed in late winter. The cow (female) is smaller than the male and has no antlers. Wapiti have mostly brownish-gray coloring with a yellowish-tan rump. The legs, head, and neck are dark brown.
During September and October, the bulls fight one another to gain control over harems, groups of cows, with whom they mate. An exceptional bull may keep a harem of 60 or more cows, but the average bull keeps only a dozen or so cows at a time. As the wapiti travel from high mountain valleys called parks to the lower valleys, they gather into large herds of both sexes and all ages. In the lower valleys, where the snow is not too deep, they spend the winter.
As the snow melts in the spring, wapiti move slowly back into the higher mountains. Calves are born in May or June. A cow rarely bears more than one calf. A calf is light tawny-brown, with many white spots that are lost during the first change of coat in August.
Wapiti usually eat grasses. They also eat the twigs and needles of fir, juniper, and many hardwood trees and shrubs, especially during the winter. Many of the larger herds of the United States and Canada do not have enough winter range for feeding. Many wapiti die of starvation or from diseases, such as pneumonia and necrotic stomatitis (calf diphtheria). Chronic wasting disease, a deadly contagious illness of the brain, has become a major threat to wapiti. Wolves and cougars are among the natural predators (hunters) of wapiti. Bears and coyotes kill some calves and sick adults.
Wapiti once roamed over most of the United States and southern Canada. But people wiped out the populations east of the Rocky Mountains, largely by overhunting them and destroying their natural habitats. Some wapiti have been reintroduced into parts of their former range, including areas of New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Michigan, and South Dakota. They are still found in the Rocky Mountains and along the Pacific coast. The largest herds live in Yellowstone National Park, on Montana’s Sun River, in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains, and in Washington’s Olympic Mountains.
The wapiti that live in Asia typically have smaller antlers than those that live in North America. In central Asia, they are found in the Tian Shan and the Altai Mountains of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and western China, and in mountainous parts of Mongolia. They also live in southeastern Russia and northeastern China, and some isolated areas in central China. Asian subspecies include the Manchurian wapiti and the Altai wapiti.
The moose,
called elk in Europe, is larger and heavier than the wapiti. During the Middle Ages, from about the 400’s through the 1400’s, Scandinavians sometimes used moose as beasts of burden. But reindeer later took their place.
Moose have been well protected by law in European countries, but the animals’ numbers are gradually declining in Europe. Some still live in parts of eastern Europe and in the forests of Norway, Sweden, and northeastern Germany. Populations range eastward across Siberia, China’s Northeast, and Mongolia.
For more information about moose, see Moose.
The Irish elk.
An extinct prehistoric deer species of Europe and Asia is today known as the Irish elk. This immense deer was distinguished by its huge antlers, which measured up to 12 feet (3.7 meters) from tip to tip.
