It is unlikely that you can find an inhabitant of the Russian forests that could boast of the same large size as an elk. Male moose can weigh 500 or more kilograms. The mass of their horns is 20-25 kilograms, and the size is almost two meters.
Elk are one of the largest animals found in European and North American forests. Elks belong to the deer family, but are very different from them in appearance. They have a shortened body, very long legs, and large spatulate horns.
Elk antlers
Only male moose can boast of massive antlers. A normally developed horn is a broad base from which a small number of processes emerge. According to the degree of development of the horns, the age of the animal can be said only very approximately. Their growth is strongly influenced by such factors as the individual characteristics of the moose, the geography of its places of residence, etc.
Horns begin to grow in the first year of life. In late spring - early summer, soft formations appear on the elk's head, which harden only by August. The horns that have grown in the first year of life are small - their length usually does not exceed 30 centimeters. Outwardly, they resemble thick knitting needles and begin to bifurcate only in the second year of life. At first, the antlers of a young elk are loose and covered with skin. Later, the skin dries up, the horns harden and the elk rips off the remnants of the skin from them by rubbing against the tree trunks. Moose shed their antlers every fall. From December to May, males walk hornless.
Outwardly, the discarded horns resemble a plow - a device with which the ancient Slavs plowed the land. It is thanks to this similarity that the nickname "elk" has stuck to the moose.
The range of moose antlers can reach 180 centimeters, the length of each horn is 80-90 centimeters, and the total mass of the antlers reaches 25 kilograms and more. In such cases, the girth of the base of the horns exceeds 25-30 centimeters.
Thicket Giants
The largest antlers are found in moose living in Kamchatka. While the average weight of European moose rarely exceeds 450-500 kilograms, the moose living in the Penzhina River area of the Kamchatka Region can weigh more than 700 kilograms. Slightly lagging behind them and the elk, who once lived in Central Russia. So, at the beginning of the 20th century in the Petersburg province, hunters managed to get a moose, the weight of which was 619 kilograms.
The economic value of moose
In Russia and the Scandinavian countries, there have been several attempts to domesticate moose. In the Soviet Union, there were about seven elk farms where these animals were raised for meat and milk. Elk milk is considered a medicinal product.
