Crazy elk

[Oak]

This is one crazy elk skull hanging in one of my labs. If you can imagine what it would look like on a live animal, all the points would be pointing back. The really strange thing is that it's very symmetrical, even down to the crazy little twisted points.

Oak

 

[raybow 1]

Colorado:
Ya think he may have tied in with a little high voltage at one time?

That's an awsome rack man. You don't see too many like that one. Makes ya wonder what the deal was.

Have any ideas on that?

 

[Elkhunter]

That would be a cool mount.

 

[mtmiller]

That is pretty cool. Maybe it is proof that mule deer and elk are able to inter-breed.

Since this is your lab, is this elk something you created in a test tube?

Looks like you have some other stuff in the deadroom?

 

[Funter]

That looks like a Pierre Davis Deer, saw a hunt for them in Texas on OLN.

 

[Oak]

Raybow, I have no idea what may have caused it, but I'm going to check around.

Mtmiller, I should have said that it's a lab I work in, not "my" lab.

Who knows, maybe it did come from a test tube.

Yep, there's a LOT of dead stuff on the wall in this particular lab, including many from Africa (note cape buff to right of elk).

Funter, I've never heard of Pierre Davis deer. Is there a more common name? This skull has tooth sockets for canine teeth. I'm unaware of any deer with antlers this large that have canines (many forms with reduced or no antlers have canines).

Oak

 

[oldoregon]

looks like whitetail elk cross!

 

[Funter]

CO,

They might also be called red deer.They originated in china and were taken to europe by a priest named Pierre David.The antlers I saw on the show hunting 101 or 201 looked a lot like that one.I will try to find a picture of one and post it.

 

[kiwi hunta]

No not red deer,could well be a pierre davids deer tho from China, I have only seen one set of antlers and I think from memory they do have tusks like muntjac deer.

 

[Oak]

Funter, here you go. You were right. Interesting looking animal. Too bad they only exist in captivity now.

Asian deer, Elaphurus davidianus, known only in a semidomesticated state. It has a bulky, donkeylike body, reaching a shoulder height of nearly 4 ft (120 cm), with a tufted tail longer than that of any other deer. It is tawny red with white underparts and a white ring around each eye. Its hooves are very broad. It has curious antlers, with irregularly branching front prongs and usually straight posterior prongs. The antlers may reach 3 ft (90 cm) in length. E. davidianus came to the attention of Westerners in 1865, when it was observed by the missionary Père Armand David in the gardens of the Chinese emperor, near Beijing. Several specimens were sent to Europe, where they flourished in captivity; those remaining in China all perished during the Boxer Uprising. After World War II, breeding stock from England was distributed to the world’s zoos, and in 1960 the species was reestablished in China. The natural habitat of this deer is unknown, but it is believed to have inhabited the swampy plains of China until it was displaced by agriculture. It is classified in the phylum Chordata, subphylum Vertebrata, class Mammalia, order Artiodactyla, family Cervidae.

See B. Beck and C. Wemmer, The Management and Biology of an Extinct Species: Père David’s Deer (1983).

Oak

 

[Elkhunter]

Good find Oak. Pretty interesting. The two look very similar.

 

[ELKCHSR]

All the info and the actual rack is very cool and would be a trophy in most any ones room!!!