Talk:Elk/FAQ
< Talk:Elk
 | Below are answers to frequently asked questions about the corresponding page Elk. They address concerns, questions, and misconceptions which have repeatedly arisen on the talk page. Please feel free to change this material in light of new discussion. |
Q1:This article is not about the animal that some European speakers of English know as an Elk. Why?
A1:An error was made by some explorers to North America a long time ago. They mistakenly believed that the animal they encountered was an Elch (anglized to elk), the Germanic common name for what is known in North American today as a moose. Since elk is the most commonly used name to descibe this species in its native North American range, the North American usage of the term is used in the article name. For the animal known in Europe as an elk, see moose. To further complicate matters, the Shoshone Indians and several other tribes of Native Americans referred to this species as wapiti, which is a rarely used alternative name for the animal.
The key discussion that decided the title of this article is Talk:Red_deer#Name_Selection