3. The Wapiti
You may have heard of this huge mammal under the name Roosevelt elk or simply an elk, but unfortunately, the name elk is what the Eurasian moose is called, and as we saw earlier, there is a clear difference between the European moose and the American one!
As the second-largest deer in the world, the wapiti is known to have spread everywhere, from East Asia all the way through North America. Yet, the subspecies are different, as the North American wapiti is the biggest subspecies of wapiti, and it has gotten the name Roosevelt elk, and you have probably guessed that the name originates from President Theodore Roosevelt.
The reason why the wapiti holds the name of the president is that he was the one who established the Olympic National Park, which was known back then as the Mount Olympus National Monument. Located on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula, the national park’s role is to preserve these huge mammals so they do not end up on the verge of extinction. The wapiti are native to the temperate Pacific Northwest rainforest, and they can reach up to 1,300 pounds.
While the Roosevelt Elk is the biggest one of the Wapiti family. Their antlers are smaller than any other North American wapiti, potentially due to the fact that they are native to heavy timber forests, and having a broader antler than they already have would obstruct their movement in the forest.
