What Animal Is Least Closely Related To An Elk

Elk, also known as the wapiti, are one of the largest species within the deer family. Part of the Cervidae family branch, they are mammals native to Northward America and east asia. Elk, like other members of the deer family, alive in forests and wood-next habitats where they feed on elk, plants, leaves, bark and the occasional drupe.

Males are known for their big antlers that they shed every year, ritualized mating behaviors including rutting, posturing, antler wrestling, and bugling.

In that location are about 53 species belonging to the Cervidae family, which split down into 19 genera and three different subfamilies. They are spread throughout the world and can be found on well-nigh every continent, ranging in size from 13 inches alpine to most eight feet alpine.

Moose

Moose are the largest relatives to the Elk, found in North America and Eurasia. They are most normally seen in Canada, Alaska, New England, Poland, and Russia. They mostly eat terrestrial and aquatic vegetation like elk practise only don't let their vegetarian diet fool y'all. Moose are some of the most aggressive Cervids.

Male person moose take massive antlers that look like clawed easily, and the female cows tin can and will attack everything to protect their young. Moose shares similar features to Elk, such equally split hooves, horns, and mating habits. They differ more often than not in size and location.

Marsh Deer

Marsh deer are often dislocated with some other family unit fellow member called the Barasingha considering they are both sometimes called Swamp deer. Found in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, Bolivia, Brazil, and Paraguay, the marsh deer is the largest deer found in South America as they commonly reach around 4 feet tall.

Marsh deer are pretty visually different from elk. Large ears lined with white hairs, white marks on their hips and around the eyes, their fur darkens during wintertime as well. Like Elk, the marsh deer swallow vegetation, with the principal divergence beingness that they simply live in marsh areas where the h2o is less than 28 inches deep.

They are pretty acceptable swimmers and use the thick vegetation of the marsh to help avert predators such every bit the jaguar and the puma.

Roe Deer

Roe deer are small, red-gray to brown deer that are well-adapted to cold environments. They are made up of four different subspecies all found in Europe. Roe deer were originally classified as Cervids but have since been moved to Odocoileinae, which consists of deer from the new world.

All iv subspecies of roe deer are relatively small, ranging from 2-3 anxiety tall. Bucks and does are like in size, with the bucks existence simply slightly larger than the does and abound antlers like other cervids. Roe deer have adapted to living in a big number of different habitats.

Open agricultural areas, grasslands, dense woodland, and scrubland. Like the Elk, they also consume mainly grass, leaves, berries, and immature shoots with a chief focus on grass that has recently been rained on.

South Andean Deer

The South Andean deer is an endangered member of the Cervidae family. They can be plant on the high mountainsides and cold valleys of the Andes. Because of their endangered condition their habitat, behavior, and diet accept all been studied closely. They vary from Elk by and large in stature, with stocky bodies and curt legs.

Their fur has a curl to it that helps provide protection from cold and moisture. Bucks have antlers and females don't. South Andean deer are constitute in difficult-to-admission areas. Periglacial scrubland, low bluffs, and rocky areas are all viable and they are also known to spend time in upland forests and their borders. Their nutrition consists of simply thirty-two plants with the most common beingness the Lenga beech.

Taruca

Tarucas are medium-sized deer with rather heavy bodies. Adults weigh in between 150-180lbs. They are sandy brownish in color with white patches on the underside of their heads, tails, genitals, and cervix. Found in the Andes only, Tarucas only live betwixt 2,000 and 5,000m higher up sea level.

They stick shut to the water in this region, favoring grasslands with rocky outcroppings. Tarucas feed mainly on local bushes, shrubs, and herbs throughout the year but during the rainy season, they'll supplement their diets with grasses. Like Elk, Tarucas live in herds, although theirs are much smaller.

Amazonian brown brocket

Commonly referred to as the small brown brocket, this South American Elk relative is far from endangered. They thrive in Colombia, Venezuela, Guyana, Suriname, French Guiana, and other non-flooded Amazonian tropical rainforests. They are threatened by deforestation simply because of their ability to breed year-round, they're able to maintain their current numbers.

Mule deer

Mule deer are indigenous to western Northward America and are named for their ears. They can be found on the Peachy Plains, the Rocky Mountains, and in the southwest Us. They accept also been introduced to Argentina and Hawaii. There are ii deer grouped into the Mule deer classification, with blackness-tailed deer being i and Mule deer being the others.

Mule deer evolved from blackness-tailed deer and now have x unlike subspecies that brand upwardly their family unit. They are similar in size, shape, and color to the white-tailed deer with the biggest difference besides location existence the black tip to their tail. They share similar mating beliefs to Elk, rutting to obtain the rights to their preferred females.

White-tailed deer

White-tailed deer are also called Virginia deer. They are native to North America, Key America, Ecuador, and South America and tin can be found every bit far due south equally Peru and Bolivia. They've been introduced to New Zealand, the Greater Antilles, and the Caribbean area.

White-tailed deer are the nigh widely constitute deer, with their reddish-brownish coat and easily recognizable tail that has a white underside. They've adapted to a wide multifariousness of habitats where they eat grasses, shrubs, leaf, and sometimes the occasional protein. They also enjoy legumes, cacti, acorns, fruit, corn, mushrooms, and toxicant ivy.

Pampas deer

Pampas deer are plant in South America in low elevations. Their habitat is by and large water and hills, with many of them living on the Pantanal wetlands. Their beingness is near-threatened due to over-hunting and habitat loss. They share the white underside of their tail with the white-tailed deer and have very little sexual dimorphism between the males and females.

Unlike the strong, proud rutting flavour that Elks take, Pampas deer are submissive to each other during mating season. The male will follow the female person around quietly, stretching low to the ground and nuzzling from time to time. Males take been known to display dominance but don't defend territory or their mates.

Pudu

Two species of South American deer make up the genus Pudu. They are the earth'south smallest deer, ranging in size from 32-44 tall and 85 centimeters long. Both Pudu'due south are shut to being threatened in the wild. Their coats are nighttime chestnut-brown, with the Northern species being slightly lighter in colour.

Both the Northern and Southern species of Pudu inhabit temperate rainforests in South America, using underbrush and bamboo to hide from predators. Southern Pudu tin exist constitute on the gradient of the southern Andes from ocean level to 2,000m and their Northern variant resides in the northern Andes of Republic of colombia, Venezuela, Peru, and Ecuador. They share very picayune in common with Elk aside from similar diets.

Reindeer

Reindeer are also known as caribou. They can be found in North America, primarily in the arctic, subarctic, tundra, and mountainous regions of northern Europe, Siberia, and Northward America. They have populations that are sedentary and migratory. Classified every bit Vulnerable, at least ii subspecies take already become extinct.

Like Elk, Reindeer are ruminants and have a 4-chambered tummy. They sustain themselves by eating primarily lichen in the winter and are the only large mammal able to metabolize said lichen. Reindeer have been known to consume their own antlers after they've fallen off for calcium, and sometimes in spring, they've been witnessed feeding on small rodents, fish, and bird eggs.

Chital

Chital is known under a scattering of names such every bit spotted deer, chital deer, and axis deer. A species native to the Indian subcontinent, these deer are known for their white-spotted coats like to the fashion the fawns of other Cervids are colored.

Elk and Chital are both grazers, with the Chital feeding mainly on grasses throughout the year. They've been known to browse on herbs, shrubs, foliage, and fruits. Found in India, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, Chital can be found in forested areas throughout the Indian peninsula.

Red deer

The reddish deer is the fourth-largest deer species backside moose and Elk. Males are called stags and females are called hinds. They inhabit most of Europe, Asia Minor, Iran, and parts of Northwestern Africa. Populations have been introduced to Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Peru, Uruguay, Argentine republic, and Chile.

Similar Elk, they are also ruminants and take an even number of toes on each hoof, like goats and cattle. They roam effectually in unmarried-sex herds except during mating flavour when mature stags volition battle for the attention of the hinds. Mature stags have been known to keep up to twenty hinds to themselves, forming a harem to keep females from younger or less bonny males.

Sika Deer

Likewise called the spotted deer, the Sika deer is similar in appearance to the Chital. They're very pop in Japan and are native to much of Due east Asia and even as far as Russia. Their spot patterns vary based on where they're constitute, with mainland subspecies having larger and more obvious spots.

The color of their glaze ranges from black and white to mahogany. Mostly nocturnal, Sika deer migrate through the mountains during the winter and summer months. Sika males are highly territorial and regularly keep harems during rutting flavor. Their closest relative is the Blood-red deer and they have been known to interbreed with members of the reddish deer family from fourth dimension to time.

Thorold'due south deer

Thorold'due south deer is plant in the forest, grassland, and shrublands in the high altitudes of the eastern Tibetan Plateau. Too known as the white-lipped deer, the species is threatened. Thorold'due south deer are crepuscular and can exist constitute living in hers of at to the lowest degree x other deer.

Males and females typically travel separately outside of breeding season. Like Elk, they are predominantly grazers, feeding on a wide multifariousness of grass, sedge, rhododendrons, and willows.

Fallow deer

Their name is derived from the pale chocolate-brown colour of their glaze. Fallow deer are only native to Turkey only were introduced effectually the world around Roman times and can at present be found in Greece, Europe, Iran, Israel, and throughout the centre east. Fallow deer have been noted to have a preference for old forests but tin be found in a variety of habitats from cold and wet to hot and dry.

Tufted deer

Tufted deer are a very small species of deer characterized by a tuft of black pilus on their brow. They're very close to the muntjac but live further north and expand over a wide area of cardinal Prc. The species is considered near-threatened from overhunting and habitat loss as they prefer to alive in forested mountain habitats.

The tufted deer look very different from Elk as they have longer necks and legs and a slightly leaner appearance overall. Males do not grow horns, just instead, produce fang-similar canines that can exist longer than an inch.

Pere David's deer

These deer are extinct in the wild merely were once native to the river valleys of China. Like Elk, they are grazers and eat a variety of grasses and aquatic plants. The reintroduction of Pere David's deer began in 1985 in China using a herd of 20 deer. A second herd was introduced in 187. as of 2015, there are about ii thousand running around.

Bawean deer

Also known as Kuhl's canis familiaris deer, this highly-threatened species of deer is found only on the island of Bawean in Indonesia. Males are often very aggressive towards other males and will spray predators with scent-gland secretions.

Muntjac

Muntjacs are funny little creatures that are known for their behavior of barking. Similar the tufted deer, Muntjacs have tusks just they as well have short antlers that they can regrow. Their genus has 12 recognized species that are native to Asia, Republic of india, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Vietnam, and the Indonesian islands.

In that location is also an invasive species of Muntjac in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and in some areas of Nihon. Like Elk, Munjac eats grass and shoots, but they are technically classified equally omnivores and regularly eat fruit, seeds, small animals, and bird eggs.

Source: https://naturenibble.com/animals-similar-to-elk/

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