How to explain what the elk differs from a deer?

What is the difference between an elk and a deer? What is the difference between these two animals? It would seem that everything is obvious. If you look at them from the outside, the adult person immediately becomes clear what the elk differs from the deer. Well, if you try to explain it in words, for example, to a child who is asking this question, then everything will turn out to be not so simple.

The same

From the point of view of the baby, these animals are very similar. Both have large branched horns, hooves and a short tail. And, in general, he is right that he does not understand what the elk differs from the deer. After all, they are relatives. Los is inherently a deer, so it is so similar to his brother. But there are also distinctive signs to explain which, it is necessary to conduct a comparative analysis of these two individuals.

Swap bodies

You should start with the appearance. Although the comparison here can play a cruel joke. If the question of what a deer is different from an elk, to answer with horns, this will not be quite true, although the difference is obvious. To understand this, you need to ask yourself one more. If the elk's horns are put to the head of a deer, then who will it be? Is it really moose? Of course not. Hence, this distinctive feature does not fit. The fact is that only a complex of various traits in the aggregate forms the image of an animal. Therefore, it is so difficult to explain what an elk differs from a deer. Yes, and whether it should be done? It is better to say that this is one kind of animal, differing in external data, habits, mode of existence.

The elk differs from the deer

This animal is very large. There are males of three meters in length, two meters in height and weighing 500-700 kilograms. Female also have rather large dimensions, although not the same as male individuals. Deer do not weigh more than 400 kilograms. Moose dwell in forest and forest-steppe zones. In Russia, they live most in Western Siberia, Yakutia, and the Ussuri region. Also they can be found in the north of Europe and in Canada. In search of food moose do not go beyond the limits of the habitat.

These animals can be recognized by a massive body and thin limbs, which end with hooves with leathery membranes. This structure helps the elk to look for food in marshy areas and in thickets. Due to this, he can get hard-to-reach food and thus survives in winter and early spring. The elk antlers, unlike the deer outgrowths, are wide and flat. They completely acquire shape by the age of five years of the animal and grow not upward, but parallel to the surface of the earth. The males grow a beard. Losi do not look as elegant and refined as their brethren. They differ in the habit of living alone or in pairs with their young. Deer keep the herds consisting of a male and 7-15 females.

Waterfowel Artiodactyl

Another interesting feature is the moose's love for water, in which he escapes from the heat and blood-sucking insects. Often he lies, immersed in a pond, and eats, without leaving therefrom. In this case, it is fed by algae, moss, coastal plants, to which it can reach. At other times, he often, at least two times a day, comes to the watering place. If he likes an underwater plant, the moose will lower his head under water without fear and grab the greens with greens. Soon after birth, the mother teaches moose swimming, so it's no wonder that adults do it with pleasure, can move in the water at a speed of 10 km / h. In winter, they go to the ice, while other deer are afraid to do it. But elks do not slide help wide hooves.

An interesting feature

And one more difference. The deer were never called elk. This concept has appeared long ago. It happened from the word "plow". This is the object for plowing the land. The first, the simplest tools were a tree-spade and a branch. The end of the gun was burned or reinforced with a metal tip. From this tool of labor there was an adjective "elk", that is, a branchy, tortuous. The elk's horns correspond to this definition. Although earlier all the animals that had them were called so, it reached us only in relation to moose. Often they become heroes of fairy tales or cartoons as kind, calm and non-aggressive beasts. Is it important how these animals differ? Each of them is interesting in its own way, but the inhabitants of our country are still closer to moose. He is known to children since childhood, he is hunted, he is even feared, being alone in the woods. Although he himself never comes to a man. Possessing a fine hearing, elk hears even quiet steps at a distance of 1 kilometer.

Man always showed interest in him. Its meat is delicious, milk is nutritious, antlers are also used. Many, especially those who obtained them on the hunt, are proud of the fact that they hang in their hallway instead of a hanger. So now special farms are experimenting with the domestication of this useful animal, so that everything that people can get from it becomes more accessible. Here are the differences between deer and moose.