When it comes to confusing common names for animals, I think the American Elk has got to be near the top of the confusing list. This came to light last week when I was in northern Montana to film and photograph Elk. I ran into a guy from Europe who was also looking to capture images of Elk, but he called them moose. I immediately understood the confusion because I have delt with this before. You see, in Europe they call Elk (Alces canadensis) Moose. To make things worse they call Moose, Elk. Just the opposite of how we name these animals.
In Europe, soccer is called football, but here in America we have a completely different sport called football. What Europeans call football; we call it soccer. When it comes to common names, there is no common ground.
To make things worse, many Europeans call Elk, Wapiti. The name Wapiti comes from the Shawnee and Cree Indian word wapiti, meaning “white rump”. So yep, you got that right. Europeans are using a name that comes from a Native American origin. Rarely do we use the name Wapiti here in North America where we probably should. Talk about your confusing names.
To read Stan’s entire article about the American Elk, pick up a Messenger today!