Hi all , one for the Americans and Aussies
compared to our uk deer how big is a us white tail deer , and a us elk ?
And an Australian wapiti ?
Thanks lads
Well if your a splitter you'll say there is 38 subspecies of whitetail in the Americas, If your a lumper you'd still agree on at least 16. The Dakota bucks have the potential to equal a Scottish red stag, 150kg, but the average would equal your "English park fallow" in size, around 80kg.
Most folks would agree on 4 subspecies of Wapiti (elk) in Nth America with the really big boys reaching 500kgs.
No deer are indigenious to Australia.
Including those in zoos, all elk/ wapiti in Aust could be counted on your fingers untill the 80's when the deer Farming industry imported pure animals, embryo's & semen from Nth America. We also imported "NZ wapiti" (not indigenous there either) which effectively were a 50/50 cross with red deer.
In this part of the world we now use the term wapiti for the Kiwi style of animal, this includes recent crosses between pure wapiti/elk & red deer. The name "elk" although incorrect to Europeans is reserved for pure canadanesis which have no European red or sika bood.
These are to be found free range now as our deer industry hit the bottom of the bell curve about 10 years ago & deer lost value for a time. In fact one of my neighbours with about 40 000 acres in his block has just discovered a mob of 40 plus elk/red crosses (wapiti) in his place. The stags/bulls here would be about 350kgs live weight & typical of what Kiwi had a few decades ago before the reds swamped the genetics.
We have at least 5 different subspecies of red deer in Aust including elk & sika,not to mention the multitude of crosses. Body weight can range from 140 kg in a Brisbane Valley red, to 500 kg for the pure Canadian boys.
Cheers Sharkey