Elk or red deer or???

Any guesses? How can you tell the difference?

With the crowns on top my guess would be red deer

My guess would be wapiti (American elk)cervus canadensis. Red stag tend to start having multiple points coming off of the spear point (4th point) after a few years of age.



When red stags grow up, they can have some really massive antlers.

Red deer

Score is:

2-red deer
1-elk

Who’s next? And I don’t know the answer. Btw.

Elk- Red Deer cross.

Crowns? Red deer.

I call this elk Basket head so I vote Elk

Sooooo

3- red
2 - elk
1- Cross breed

With out DNA it’s a guess? I guess....

Red deer!

Roosevelt Elk

Red deer

100% Red Deer. Take it to the bank.

I’d say Red deer but from genetics in Spain or Argentina. The red deer there have that shape, the ones in New Zealand have the mass and huge crowns. Hard to tell I wouldnt be surprised if it was elk, cross or red deer. Really just have to know where the animal came from. I’ve seen crosses with elk bodies and little sika looking racks and I’ve seen sika bodies and huge red deer racks. Cool rack though.

I raise Red Deer, and this could very well be an Elk/Red cross as they will definitely do that. But my final guess is a Red Deer who is just lacking true crowns and mass.

Could easily be a Rosie or a Tule.

No way to know for sure from the picture, but I would lean elk... maybe

Instincts say Red Deer

Roosevelt elk tend to crown more then the others, but all types of elk can crown. My guess is that it's a red deer. This looks like a fair to average red deer rack.

Freezer filler.

Elk

Where was it killed?

Definitely a Red Deer

With all due respect....that is not an Elk. It is a Red Deer.

Yep...lol. Was waiting for someone to point that out.

I think its a Red Stag

You should rename him red deer-elk.

Fine question. I killed him for the second time with some green paper in east plano. Someone neglected to take care of business..... he is one of the last of the dead creatures I acquired.


But the reason for the question is.... I think I’m going to make a project out of him. I’m trying to decide what Taxidermy pieces to order. ( not a big deal because they are close)
I have been looking on eBay and the ‘art’ type stuff is 1to 15k instead of a couple hundred bucks. Or if I screw it up I have something cool in the Garage.



My guess is it’s a red deer.

Thank y’all and
Good times keep the “guessing” coming!

Normanpig can you measure them to give us an idea how big they are.
Didn't want to hijack your thread so I started
a new topic The elk of Eddy so they can see what basket head looks like now.

You bet! No worries. When you say Measure.....I have a construction type tape if that’s what we a looking for.


Or I can learn how to “score” it.

Sounds like fun either way

There is a quite a few red deer ( free range ) in southern young county and south western Jack county that were released from a high fence ranch about 15 years ago.