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We call American elk wapiti in NZ, which I guess is a Native American name for them, and we consider them to be distinct from red deer - there's active manageme
by EdwardDiego 6y ago
We call American elk wapiti in NZ, which I guess is a Native American name for them, and we consider them to be distinct from red deer - there's active management of the wapiti population (which is limited to Fiordland) to try to minimise hybridisation with red deer.
- samatman 6y agoWe call them wapiti as well, sometimes. It's more common in Canada. The line between a species and subspecies is blurry. I know for a fact that when I was a child, red deer and elk/wapiti were considered the same species, just like the Neanderthal were considered a subspecies of homo sapiens. I guess the splitters are ascendant in recent times.