BACKGROUND - British Columbia: Including the Alaska Highway - page 715

The giant of the deer family, the moose, is an awkward-looking mammal that appears
to have been designed by a cartoonist. It has the largest antlers of any animal in the world,
stands up to 1.8 meters (5.9 feet) at the shoulder, and weighs up to 500 kilograms (1,100
pounds). Its body is dark brown, and it has a prominent nose, long spindly legs, small eyes,
big ears, and an odd flap of skin called a bell dangling beneath its chin. Apart from all that,
it's good-looking. Each spring the bull begins to grow palm-shaped antlers that by August
will be fully grown. Moose are solitary animals, preferring marshy areas and weedy lakes,
but they are known to wander to higher elevations searching out open spaces in summer.
They forage in and around ponds on willows, aspen, birch, grasses, and all aquatic vegeta-
tion. They are most common in northern British Columbia.
Bull elk are easily recognized by their large antlers.
The elk (also known as wapiti) has a tan body with a dark-brown neck, dark-brown legs,
and a white rump. This second-largest member of the deer family weighs 250-450 kilo-
grams (550-990 pounds) and stands 1.5 meters (4.9 feet) at the shoulder. Pockets of elk in-
habit valleys in the east of the province, but the animals are not particularly common.
Small populations of woodland caribou are restricted to the far north of the province.
You may see them feeding in open areas at higher elevations along the Alaska Highway.