What we call elk in America is a species of deer. Better to call it
the wapiti. What they call elk in Europe is called a moose in
America, also a species of deer, BTW, but with a very different look
from the giant deer we call the elk.
Wikipedia entry on the elk
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Various Cervus elaphus subspecies
The elk (Cervus canadensis), or wapiti, is one of the largest species within the deer family, Cervidae, and one of the largest terrestrial mammals in its native range of North America and Central and East Asia. The word "elk" originally referred to the European variety of the moose, Alces alces, but was transferred to Cervus canadensis by North American colonists. The name "wapiti", derived from a Shawnee and...
Wikipedia entry on the moose
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The moose (in North America) or elk (in Eurasia) (Alces alces) is a member of the New World deer subfamily and is the only species in the genus Alces. It is the largest and heaviest extant species in the deer family. Most adult male moose have distinctive broad, palmate ("open-hand shaped") antlers; most other members of the deer family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal forests and tempera...
FWIW,
Elliot