The Altai wapiti, sometimes called the Altai
elk, is a
subspecies
In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics ( morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all specie ...
of ''Cervus canadensis'' found in the forest hills of southern
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part ...
, northwestern
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 ...
, and northern
Xinjiang
Xinjiang, SASM/GNC: ''Xinjang''; zh, c=, p=Xīnjiāng; formerly romanized as Sinkiang (, ), officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China (PRC), located in the northwes ...
province of
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
. It is different from the
Tian Shan wapiti
The Tian Shan wapiti or Tian Shan maral (''Cervus canadensis songaricus''), is a subspecies of ''C. canadensis''. It is also called the Tian Shan elk in North American English.
Description
It is native to the Tian Shan Mountains in eastern K ...
in being smaller and paler in color.
It has also been classified as ''
C. elaphus sibirica'',
[M. V. Kuznetsova, A. A. Danilkin, M. V. Kholodova: "Phylogeography of red deer (Cervus elaphus): Analysis of MtDNA cytochrome b polymorphism" ''Biology Bulletin'' Vol. 39, No. 4 (July 2012), pp 323-330 ] and is also known as the Altai maral, central maral deer, Siberian red deer,
[ and maral.][Halik Mahmut, Ryuichi Masuda, Manabu Onuma, Manami Takahashi, Junko Nagata, Masatsugu Suzuki, Noriyuki Ohtaishi "Molecular Phylogeography of the Red Deer (Cervus elaphus) Populations in Xinjiang of China: Comparison with other Asian, European, and North American Populations" ''Zoological Science'' Vol. 19, No. 4 (2002), pp. 485-495 ]
References
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Elk and red deer