Moose vs Elk: Size, Antlers and How to Tell Them Apart

Why the names cause confusion

Part of the confusion is only about words. In Britain and the rest of Europe, Alces alces is called the elk. North Americans call the same animal the moose, a word borrowed from an Algonquian language. English settlers in North America then gave the name elk to a different animal, Cervus canadensis, which is why many biologists prefer the Shawnee and Cree name wapiti for it.

So when a European talks about an elk, they mean the animal shown here, the moose. When an American talks about an elk, they mean the wapiti. This page uses the North American names: moose for Alces alces and elk for Cervus canadensis.

The two are not close relatives. Moose belong to the subfamily Capreolinae, along with roe deer, reindeer and white-tailed deer. Elk belong to the Cervinae, the group of red deer, sika deer and fallow deer. Elk were long treated as the same species as the European red deer, a question explained in are elk and red deer the same species?

Size: which is bigger?

The moose is the largest deer in the world, and the elk is the second largest in North America.

On average a moose stands about 30 cm (1 ft) taller at the shoulder, and a big Alaskan bull can weigh more than any elk. The largest elk, the Roosevelt elk of the Pacific Northwest, reach roughly 600 kg (1,300 lb) at most. For details, see how big is a moose? and how big is an elk?

Antlers

Antlers are the clearest difference. Only males grow them in both species, and both shed and regrow them every year.

• Moose antlers spread sideways from the head and in most bulls widen into flat palms edged with points, rather like open hands. A typical spread is about 1.2–1.5 m (3.9–4.9 ft), and the heaviest sets weigh around 35 kg (77 lb). Moose shed their antlers in early winter.
• Elk antlers are long, rounded beams that sweep up and back over the shoulders, with separate points branching off. A mature bull often has about six points on each side, and a large pair weighs up to about 18 kg (40 lb). Elk shed their antlers in late winter or early spring.

Some European moose, especially in the south of their range, carry narrower antlers with less palm, but they still look heavier and wider than elk antlers.

Face, body and color

A moose has a long, heavy head with a bulging, overhanging muzzle and a flap of skin hanging from the throat called the dewlap or bell. Its shoulders form a high hump, its back slopes down to the hips, and its very long legs make the body look short. The coat is dark brown to nearly black, with paler, grayish legs.

An elk has a slimmer head, a straight face and a more evenly balanced body. Its coat is tan to reddish brown, with a darker brown head, neck and legs, a shaggy dark mane in fall and winter and a large, pale rump patch around a short tail. That pale rump is often the first thing you notice from a distance.

Calves differ too. Elk calves are born with white spots, like most deer. Moose calves have a plain reddish-brown coat.

Food and habitat

Moose are browsers. They eat the twigs, leaves and bark of willow, birch, aspen and pine, and wade into ponds for water plants in summer. They favor willow thickets, wetlands, lakeshores and young forest.

Elk are mostly grazers. They eat grasses, sedges and herbs, adding shrubs and bark in winter. They prefer open country next to cover: meadows, forest edges, foothills and grasslands. Where both live, as in Yellowstone, you will often see elk out in the open meadows and moose standing among the willows by a river.

Behavior and sounds

Elk are among the most social deer, living in herds that can number hundreds. In the fall rut, bulls gather groups of cows and bugle, a loud call that rises to a high whistle, explained in why do elk bugle?

Moose are mostly solitary. A cow and her calf stay together for about a year, but adults otherwise live alone. During the rut, bulls give deep grunts and cows make long, wavering moans, and a bull usually stays with one cow at a time rather than a herd, although tundra moose in Alaska can gather small groups.

Elk can run at up to about 65 km/h (40 mph), a little faster than the moose’s top speed of about 56 km/h (35 mph). Moose are the stronger swimmers and the only deer that regularly dive for food.

Which is more dangerous?

Neither animal hunts people, but both are large and can hurt someone who gets too close. Moose are generally considered the greater risk: in Alaska, more people are injured by moose than by bears each year, usually by cows defending calves or by moose harassed by people or dogs. Elk cause fewer injuries, but bulls in the fall rut and cows with young calves in spring do charge visitors in parks. In both cases, parks advise watching from at least 25 yards (23 m) away.

Range and where they overlap

Moose live across the northern forests of North America, Europe and Asia. Elk live mainly in western North America, with reintroduced herds in several eastern states, and in Central and East Asia. The two overlap in the Rocky Mountains of the US and Canada, in parts of the Canadian prairie provinces and in southern Siberia, Mongolia and northeast China.

Both species are listed as Least Concern by the IUCN. They cannot interbreed: they are too distantly related within the deer family, and no hybrids have been confirmed.