Are elk and wapiti the same animal?

Well, that's the problem with common names. Now you understand why every species has a Latin-based scientific name. read more

This animal is called ‘Wapiti’ in Cree, and this is the name that is used for the animal in Scandinavia (where it’s not found). In North America, however, the animal is called an elk. In Asia, it’s called a maral (which is the same name used for the red deer, which was previously believed to be the same species, but is now considered a separate species). read more

is that elk is (british) the largest member of the deer family (alces alces ); a moose while wapiti is (us|canada) the american elk ((taxlink) or cervus canadensis ) it was formerly considered to be in the same species as the european red deer, which it somewhat exceeds in size. read more

Wapiti is (one of) the original names for the animal, and the colloquial word elk is inaccurate and frankly a little confusing. That’s because the word elk (as we mentioned earlier) refers to a completely different animal. Across the Atlantic Ocean, Brits use elk to describe the animal we all know as a moose. read more