What exactly is a wapiti?
You know the wapiti under another name, so let’s make this a guessing game. He stands 5 feet tall and may weigh half a ton. His thick, hairy coat is brownish gray, fading to a paler yellowish tone around his rump and stubby tail. His head and long, slim legs are dark brown, and there is a dark brown shawl around his neck and throat. He has the gentle face of a dark eyed deer and through most of the year he wears a spreading crown of antlers on his head. In older males, the proud antlers may be 5 feet wide, with 12 pointed branches. This handsome deer belongs to North America. His correct name is the wapiti though most people call him the elk. We do not notice this speed variation as we travel, but it does cause strange things to happen to moving objects above the rotating surface. North of the equator it causes draining water to veer to the right, while south of the equator it veers to the left. This odd happening was figured out by a French mathematician named Gaspard Coreolis, which
This handsome deer once roamed over most of our land, but nowadays he lives wild only in the western mountains. A grown wapiti is as big as a mule and a large stag may tip the scales at half a ton. His proud head is crowned with spreading antlers that sometimes branch into as many as l2 points. The average male stands five feet at shoulder level and his graceful antlers may spread five feet wide. The baby fawns are born with spotted coats. In the fall, when the youngsters are about three months old, the white spots fade and the coats darken. As adults, they will wear thick gray .brown coats with darker ruffs of shaggy hair around their sturdy necks. Perhaps you can picture the handsome wapiti and compare him with pictures you have seen of him for he is our lordly elk.
