Elk, a name applied to two members of the deer family, found respectively in the European and North American continents. Both species have been hunted until their numbers have been greatly reduced.
9 Important Facts About Elk:
- American Elk, or Wapiti (native name). This noble game animal once ranged over the continent from the Carolinas to Alaska, but it is now seen only in the Rocky Mountains from the Northern United States into Alberta.
- It has been hunted for its flesh, hide, teeth and antlers, especially by Native Americans.
- Natives covered their tepees and lodges with the wapiti's skin, and used the flesh for food.
- Later, large numbers of the animals were slaughtered for their teeth by white men which were used by the Elks' fraternal order as membership badges.
- Game laws now protect surviving wapiti, and the membership badges of that order are an imitation elk's head.
- The American elk is a close relative of the European red deer, but is much larger, standing five feet high at the shoulder, and weighing as much as 1,000 pounds.
- Its upper parts are yellowish-brown, and its sides are gray; there is a whitish patch on each buttock, and the red and black neck has a thick growth of coarse black hair.
- The animal has a magnificent pair of branching antlers, which curve outward and backward, but have the tines pointing forward.
- Grasses, weed and leaves form the wapiti's food.
- European Elk. This, the largest deer of Europe, is very similar to the moose of the United States. It stands about six feet in height at the shoulders, has a thick, large, clumsy head and broad, flat horns. It is grayish-brown in color, some parts being lighter than others. It is still found in many of the wilder parts of Europe, as it is rigidly protected by law. It is easily tamed and has been used as a beast of burden in Sweden.
- The Irish elk was a large animal which is now extinct. It was distinguished by its enormous antlers, the tips of which were sometimes as much as eleven feet apart. Its remains are found not only in Ireland but in Scotland and England and on the Continent.
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