Elk

Lore & Background

Elk dwell in open forest and forest-edge habitats, grazing on grasses and sedges and browsing higher-growing plants, leaves, twigs and bark. Male elk have large, blood- and nerve-filled antlers, which they routinely shed each year as the weather warms. Males engage in ritualized mating behaviors including posturing, antler-wrestling, and bugling—a loud series of vocalizations that establish dominance and attract females. The elk's wider rump-patch and paler-hued antlers are key morphological differences distinguishing it from the European red deer.

Reader's Guide

Elk have significant ecological and cultural importance. They are hunted as game species, and their meat is lean and higher in protein than beef or chicken. Antlers and velvet are used in traditional medicines in parts of Asia, and the production of ground antler and velvet supplements is a thriving naturopathic industry in the United States, China and Canada. Elk have been successfully introduced to countries outside their natural range, including Argentina and New Zealand, where their adaptability may threaten endemic ecosystems. Some cultures revere the elk as having spiritual significance. Elk are susceptible to several infectious diseases transmissible to or from domesticated livestock, and vaccination efforts have had mixed success. Prehistoric populations were present across Eurasia and into Western Europe during the Late Pleistocene, surviving into the early Holocene in Southern Sweden and the Alps.

Did You Know?

• The word 'elk' originally referred to the European moose (Alces alces) but was transferred to Cervus canadensis by North American colonists.
• The name 'wapiti' comes from Shawnee and Cree words meaning 'white rump'.
• Elk and red deer produce fertile offspring in captivity and have interbred in New Zealand's Fiordland National Park, leading to the disappearance of virtually all pure elk blood there.
• The extinct Irish elk (Megaloceros) was not a member of the genus Cervus but the largest member of the wider deer family known from the fossil record.