WAPITI AND MOOSE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LX, Issue 18396, 11 May 1923, Page 4

WAPITI AND MOOSE.

TWO TYPES OF DEER.

The Wapiti, a speciman of -which -was shot recently in the West Coast Sounds district, is a North American deer, belonging to the same group as the Scottish red deer. The antlers . are greatly developed, are smooth, and have the sur-royal tines, usually three or - more in number in the adult, flattened and expanded, while the beam is markedly curveu Backwards. The colour iB dark brown on the head and neck, gray on the back, flanks, and sides, and blackish below, the legs being brown. The height at the shoulders is about, 5 £ft in a fullgrown stag, -which may weigh as much as 10001b. In habits the wapiti resembles Che red deer. The moose is the largest living deer. The antlers are present only in the male, and are so placed that their basal portion lies in the same plane as the forehead. This basal portion :is short and cylindrical, and expands into a huge basin, whose- margin is prolonged into short branches or snags. This form of antler is described as palmated. In both sexes of, the moose the neck is short, the muzzle broad and overhanging, the legs long, with long and pointed hoofs, the tail very short, and the ears long. The height at the shoulders does not apparently exceed 63ft. In summer the males fight : fiercely, the combats sometimes leaulng to the death of both animals. In spite of their somewhat ungainly build the animals run swiftly.