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In many respects, wapiti, most commonly known in Canada and the United States as elk, are the North American counterparts of Europe’s red deer. The species is perhaps more plentiful in and around the Rocky Mountains and also has a foothold in northeast Asia. It is essentially a herd animal, mixed-sex herds being found throughout the winter months. In summer, prior to the autumn rut, mature males split from the females and youngsters in preparation for the rigors to come. Due to the species’ popularity among hunters and the high proportion of mature males with good trophy antlers that are taken, the social struc- ture and male hierarchy of many populations are continually and severely disrupted. Wapiti are partial migrants, feeding in pastures on mountain slopes during spring and summer and moving to lower elevations for the winter. North America is home to two other common deer species, the white-tailed deer and the mule deer—or black-tailed deer. Both are essentially animals of forest, woodland, and scrub, but will

Red deer have widespread but patchy distri- bution across Europe, the result of their pref- erence for open, untamed habitat combined with the pressures of local extermination by hunting. In common with most other northern temperate deer species, the young are born in the spring, and the cycle begins again at an annual autumn rut at which males com- pete for the right to mate with females. The species is perhaps easiest to see in Scotland where genuinely wild herds roam the moors and glens. In the absence of any significant wild predators—wolves and bears are long extinct in Great Britain—red deer numbers are thought to pose problems for the regen- eration of native pine forests, and there is a strong case for controlling their numbers by shooting. Unfortunately, as with other hunted species, it is often the mature males with the best sets of antlers that are shot, an approach opposite to the process of natural selection where survival of the fittest and strongest is the rule.

Having thwarted his rivals’ claims to his herd, this red deer stag can now mate with the females in turn, as each one comes into season. He must still be vigilant, however, because in unguarded moments interloping

males quickly appear on the scene.

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