Vapiti ( lat. Cervus elaphus subspp. , Eng. Wapiti, American Elk ) is the common name of the red deer subspecies found in North America . Close to deer . It reaches a height of about 150 cm in the shoulders. In males, the back and sides are light, grayish-yellow, the neck, abdomen and legs are very dark, brownish-black. At the base of the tail there is a wide light yellow field, setting on the croup . The horns are large, with 6-7 processes located in the same plane; the fourth spine reaches the largest size, at the place of discharge of which the trunk forms a sharp bend back. Weigh horns up to 16 kg, or even 20 kg.
Content
Subspecies
There are six known subspecies of red deer that inhabit or inhabit North America:
- Canadian wapiti deer
- Cervus elaphus canadensis ( eng. Eastern Elk )
- Considered extinct. Inhabited the Canadian province of Ontario and southern Kebec , in many eastern states, including Pennsylvania , except New England and Florida .
- Roosevelt Deer
- Cervus elaphus roosevelti ( English Roosevelt Elk )
- Livestock 117 000. Occurs in the US states of California , Oregon , Washington and on the island of Vancouver .
- California deer
- Cervus elaphus nannodes ( California Elk, Tule )
- Livestock 3 200. Guarded subspecies, lives in California.
- Cervus elaphus nelsoni ( English Rocky Mountain Elk )
- Livestock 850 000. It lives on a wide territory from the Canadian province of British Columbia to the state of New Mexico .
- Cervus elaphus merriami ( English Merriam Elk )
- Extinct subspecies. He lived in the states of Texas , New Mexico and in the mountains of Arizona .
- Cervus elaphus manitobensis ( English Manitoban Elk )
- Livestock 21 000. It lives in the northern prairies and adjacent forests of the Canadian province of Manitoba .
Deer or moose?
Americans, as well as French Canadians, practically all large deer are called words denoting moose in Europe (English elk , French é lan ), which gives rise to numerous mistakes when translated into Russian.
Foreign versions of Wikipedia offer the following versions of the explanation of this name confusion:
1) the wapiti deer is larger and heavier than the European red deer, which is why the colonists looked more like an elk;
2) the elk itself was not known to the inhabitants of the British Isles, where these animals became extinct in the Bronze Age [1] , and over time, the concept of elk began to denote any large deer [2] .
Having met the real moose, the colonists of British origin began to call it the Algonquian word moose , and the French - the word orignal , which has Basque roots.
See also
- Roosevelt Deer
- Red deer
Notes
- ↑ George Monbiot. Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life. - University of Chicago press, 2014. - p. 124.
- ↑ Mallory, JP and DQ Adams. Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world. - Oxford University Press, 2006. - p. 133.
Literature
- Wapiti // Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary : 86 t. (82 t. And 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.