The Alashan wapiti is a subspecies of ''Cervus canadensis'' (named "

elk The elk (''Cervus canadensis''), also known as the 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 common ...

" or "wapiti" in North America), found in northern

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

and

Mongolia Mongolia; Mongolian script: , , ; lit. "Mongol Nation" or "State of Mongolia" () is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south. It covers an area of , with a population of just 3.3 million, ...

. It is the smallest subspecies of

, has the lightest color, and is the least studied, other than the

extinct Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...

Merriam's elk The Merriam's elk (''Cervus canadensis merriami'') is an extinct subspecies of elk once found in the arid lands of the southwestern United States (in Arizona, New Mexico and Texas), as well as in Mexico. Uncontrolled hunting and cattle grazing si ...

References

Elk and red deer {{eventoedungulate-stub