Moose

The moose (North America) or elk (Eurasia), Alces alces, is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern

 Hemisphere in temperate tosubarctic climates. Moose used to have a much wider range but hunting and other human activities have greatly reduced it. Moose have been reintroduced to some of their former habitats. Currently, most moose are found in Canada, Alaska, New England, Scandinavia, Latvia, Estonia and Russia. Their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common moose predators are wolves, bears and humans. Unlike most other deer species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move quickly if angered or startled. Their mating season in the autumn can lead to spectacular fights between males competing for a female. In summary, this large animal, Alces alces, is always called a "moose" in American English but called an "elk" in British English. That same word "elk," as used by a North American, means a completely different and only somewhat related animal, wapiti Cervus canadensis. A mature male is called a bull, a mature female a cow, and an immature moose of either sex a calf.The word "elk" originated from Proto-Germanic languages, from which Old English evolved. The British English word "elk" has cognates in other Indo-European languages, for example elg in Danish/Norwegian; älg in Swedish; alnis in Latvian; Elchin German; and łoś in Polish (Latin alcē or alcēs and Greek ἅλκη álkē are probably Germanic loanwords). In the continental-European languages, these forms of the word "elk" almost always refer to the Alces alces.

The word "moose" first entered English by 1606and is borrowed from the Algonquian languages (compare the Narragansett moos and Eastern Abenaki mos; according to early sources, these were likely derived from moosu, meaning "he strips off"), and possibly involved forms from multiple languages mutually reinforcing one another. The Proto-Algonquian form was *mo·swa. The term "moose" is a name of North American origin, and the scientific name Alces alces comes from its Latin name. The animal was known in Britain as the elk.

The moose went extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age, long before the Europeans' discovery of America. The youngest bones were found in Scotland and are roughly 3900 years old. The word "elk" remained in usage because of its existence in continental Europe but, without any living animals around to serve as a reference, the meaning became rather vague to most ancient speakers of English, who used elk to refer to large deer in general. Dictionaries of the 18th century simply described "elk" as a deer that was as large as a horse.