So my answer elk up high, deer low, moose very low. The red wolf, Virginia wolf is the deer wolf and should be encouraged to control deer numbers and good health, except that it cross breeds with the rabbit wolf or kiyote and eats human pets in the urban and suburban wilder areas. Each have a wolf to predate them (other than us) – the so called timber wolf is actually an elk wolf. So, elk ( they’re really big, a bit worrying, like moose – don’t hit one with your car or Paul’s truck). The deer hang out in the lower areas where there is more to eat. The question we are trying to answer is how high up the mountain do deer turn into elk (wapiti not moosi) – we don’t have no mountains so the deer(white tailed mostly) and the elk (only a few now) hang out more of less in the same woods. Not only because moose elk and wapiti elk are both (very large) deer (so the question is a false dichotomy), but also because the answer is based on the idea that in American usage “deer” usually means white-tailed deer, which is incorrect there are multiple species of deer in North America that are commonly called “deer”, including mule deer found in the plains and black-tailed deer in the Pacific Northwest. In Britain, however, the moose is still called an elk, so the picture is actually correct in British usage. Subsequently, the even larger deer with the dark fur and plamate (hand-like) antlers became known as moose, after another native term for that animal.

But by the time British settlers came to North America, the moose/elk had died off in Britain, so they wound up using the name “elk” for the other large deer found in North America, which are also known as “wapiti”, from a Native American term. Elk are grazers and deer are browsers.įunnily enough, the word “elk”, which comes from the Latin word “alcus”, originally described the animal most North Americans now call “moose”, as they are found in northern continental Europe. Elk communicate louder and more distinctivly than deer.Ĥ. The two animals are also distinguishable by their coats.ģ. Deer and elk have many similarities including their taxonomical family, digestion process, and reproductive cycle.Ģ. Variations are used for mating and as a cry of distress.ĭeer communicate with bleats and grunts, but also make liberal use of non-auditory means, such as scents.Įlk are browsers and feed on a variety of grasses found on the edges of woodlands.ĭeer are grazers that prefer legumes but also eat shoots, leaves, and grasses.ġ. The most distinctive feature of the deer is its white tail, which it raises in alarm.Įlk make a distinctive bugling call that can be heard for miles around. Their coats are reddish tinged in the summer and dull out to a gray in the winter. Deer stand around 3 ½ feet tall and can grow to as long as 7 feet in length. Elk noses are large, round, and droopy.ĭeer ‘“ top out at 300lb for mature males. Males also grow a thick mat of hair around their necks at that time. Elks are covered with a shaggy brown coat that gets thicker in the winter. Females are smaller and only weight 500lb. Males weigh around 700lb when they reach maturity, and stand 5 feet long and 8 feet tall. There are also many ways in which you can tell elk and deer apart.Įlk are large animals. As these antlers are growing during the spring and summer they are covered with a soft tissue known as velvet. The males of both species grow a new set of antlers annually. They are marked with distinctive white colored spots that they lose before their first winter.

However, white-tails are a species within the deer family, Cervidae.īoth species are ruminants, meaning that they have a four-chambered stomach full of bacteria that allows them digest nearly all varieties of plant matter.īoth species mate in the fall and during that time males lose a significant portion of their body weight as they attempt to mate with as many females as possible.īaby deer (fawns) and baby elk (calves) are born in the spring. Most people in North America refer to white-tailed deer as deer, just as we will be doing for the duration of this article. For the most part, these species hold more similarities with their cousins than differences, but there are some key distinctions between deer and elk. Some common deer species are moose, elk, white-tailed deer, and sambar. The deer family is a large group of grazing or browsing ruminants that cover the globe.

Deer vs elk antlers for dogs