Elk noses are large, round, and droopy.ĭeer ‘“ top out at 300lb for mature males. Males also grow a thick mat of hair around their necks at that time. Elks are covered with a shaggy brown coat that gets thicker in the winter. Females are smaller and only weight 500lb. Males weigh around 700lb when they reach maturity, and stand 5 feet long and 8 feet tall. There are also many ways in which you can tell elk and deer apart.Įlk are large animals. As these antlers are growing during the spring and summer they are covered with a soft tissue known as velvet. The males of both species grow a new set of antlers annually. They are marked with distinctive white colored spots that they lose before their first winter.
#The eternal frontier summary full
However, white-tails are a species within the deer family, Cervidae.īoth species are ruminants, meaning that they have a four-chambered stomach full of bacteria that allows them digest nearly all varieties of plant matter.īoth species mate in the fall and during that time males lose a significant portion of their body weight as they attempt to mate with as many females as possible.īaby deer (fawns) and baby elk (calves) are born in the spring. Most people in North America refer to white-tailed deer as deer, just as we will be doing for the duration of this article. For the most part, these species hold more similarities with their cousins than differences, but there are some key distinctions between deer and elk. Some common deer species are moose, elk, white-tailed deer, and sambar. The deer family is a large group of grazing or browsing ruminants that cover the globe.