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American Elk
Also called: Wapiti.
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Length.—8 feet. Height at shoulder, 5 feet 4 inches. Length of antler, 50-65 inches.
Description.—Body above yellowish brown, beneath nearly black, head, chest and neck dark brown, legs clove brown, a yellowish white area on the rump about the base of the tail. Female rather lighter coloured. The antlers borne only by the male curve outward and backward with curved branches or tines projecting forward at nearly uniform distances, the lowest pair directly over the forehead.
Range.—Formerly throughout the Northern states and Canada, extending southward in the mountains. Now nearly extinct in the East. In the Northwest its place is taken by the closely related Roosevelt's elk and in the Arizona Mountains by Merriam's elk.
Range.—Coast range of Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
Range.—White Mountains of Arizona and Mogollon Mountains, New Mexico.
This splendid game animal is now all but extinct east of the Mississippi river; a victim to the advance of civilization and the greed of the hunter. But over the miles and miles of country which he formerly roamed at will his memory will be preserved for all time in the names of towns, counties, rivers, lakes and mountains. Any locality where elk were particularly abundant or where perhaps the last one was killed has been christened in honour of the noble beast, and apparently there is not a State lying within the former range of the species that has not its Elk county or Elk township. The name, like many another bestowed by our early settlers, is unfortunate, as the elk of the Old World is practically identical with our moose, while the American elk is a true stag, having its counterpart in the red deer of Europe. Wapiti, the Indian name, is distinctive and preferable, but, of course, a change in a name so well established is out of the question, and all we can do is to remember that elk in America and Europe refers to very different animals.
In parts of Quebec the elk may possibly still exist or, at any rate did, not so many years ago and here are often found the cast-off horns buried in moss and loam or washed from the bed of a river. In northern Michigan and Wisconsin a few may still persist.
In the Eastern States the elk seems to have lingered longest in the wilds of central Pennsylvania and men are still living who can remember the killing of the "last elk" of their several localities about fifty years ago.
The Rocky Mountains and ranges to the westward now contain all the elk that are left and at the present rate of killing their extermination would seem to be not far distant.
Like many of the Cervidae, elk are gregarious and polygamous, associating in moderate-sized herds, the strongest bull acting as master of the cows and driving the other aspirants off by themselves until such time as they can prove their superiority and acquire a herd of their own.
At the pairing season frequent savage encounters take place between the bulls, which charge one another with lowered heads in the manner of all the deer tribe. Occasionally two individuals have been found with their great branching antlers locked inextricably together or perhaps merely the antlers themselves are discovered, silent witnesses of a tragedy of former years, ending in starvation or an attack by wolves, the elk in their unfortunate predicament being unable to save themselves from either one fate or the other.
"After the pairing season" writes Lydekker, "wapiti collect in large herds, which used formerly to number several hundred individuals, and wander about for a time till they finally select their winter feeding grounds. These are usually open hills where the ground is kept more or less free of snow by the wind, so that such food as there is at this season may be obtained with the least difficulty. During the hot weather, when they are much persecuted by flies and mosquitoes, wapiti resort to water, in which they will stand for hours; and, in the pairing season at least, the old stags are fond of wallowing in mud-holes from which they emerge coated with dirt and presenting anything but a prepossessing appearance. The antlers are shed in March and the new pair free from the velvet by the end of August or beginning of September. Saplings of aspen or pine appear to afford the favourite rubbing posts for freeing the antlers from the last remnants of the velvet. In a wild state the hind breeds when two or three years old; the number of fawns at a birth being sometimes two, or rarely three, although one is the most common."
As to food the elk is not particular. Mr. Caton says: "All the grasses and most of the weeds within his reach are taken freely and the leaves and twigs of all the deciduous trees are alike enjoyed. A considerable proportion of his daily food he desires to be arboreous, yet if deprived of it he will keep in good condition on herbaceous food alone. In winter he will take the coarsest food, and will eat freely even that which the ox and the horse reject." Elk feed leisurely during the morning and afternoon, usually resting at midday, and unlike most deer they are not active during the night.