The Altai wapiti, sometimes called the Altai

elk The elk (: ''elk'' or ''elks''; ''Cervus canadensis'') or wapiti, is the second 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. ...

, or simply the Altai Deer, is a

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of ''Cervus canadensis'' found in the forest hills of southern

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

, northwestern

Mongolia Mongolia is a landlocked country in East Asia, bordered by Russia to the north and China to the south and southeast. It covers an area of , with a population of 3.5 million, making it the world's List of countries and dependencies by po ...

, and northern

Xinjiang Xinjiang,; , SASM/GNC romanization, SASM/GNC: Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Sinkiang, officially the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (XUAR), is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People' ...

province of

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

. It is different from the Tian Shan wapiti 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.

Characteristics

The Siberian wapiti is similar to other subspecies of ''Cervus canadensis'' in that the adults have a lighter toned torso with darker necks and juveniles have thicker fur on the body. The adult male Altai wapiti has a recorded shoulder height of up to 155 cm (5.1 ft) and a maximum body weight of 300 kg (661.5 lbs), the female Altai wapiti is significantly smaller. The calf of this wapiti is larger than that of other Asiatic wapitis with a weight of 11 to 22 kg (24 to 48.5 lbs) upon birth.Jagdschloss Granitz (Hrsg.): ''Die Hirsche der Welt.'' Parey Buchverlag, Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin/ Wien 1998, ISBN 3-8263-8514-4.

References

Cervus {{eventoedungulate-stub