Roosevelt elk
Large North American mammal
The Roosevelt elk (Cervus canadensis roosevelti), also known commonly as the Olympic elk and Roosevelt's wapiti, is the largest of the four surviving subspecies of elk (Cervus canadensis) in North America by body mass. Mature bulls weigh from 700 to 1,200 lb (320 to 540 kg), with very rare large bulls weighing more. Its geographic range includes temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest including parts of northern California. It was introduced to Alaska's Afognak, Kodiak, and Raspberry Islands in 1928 and reintroduced to British Columbia's Sunshine Coast from Vancouver Island in 1986.
Naming and protection
In December 1897, mammalogist C. Hart Merriam named the subspecies after his friend Theodore Roosevelt, then Assistant Secretary of the US Navy. The desire to protect the Roosevelt elk was one of the primary forces behind the establishment of the Mount Olympus National Monument in 1909 by President Theodore Roosevelt. Later in 1937, President Franklin D. Roosevelt visited the region and saw the elk named after his relative. The following year he created Olympic National Park.
Description
The Roosevelt elk grows to around 6–10 ft (180–300 cm) in length and stand 2.5–5.6 ft (76–171 cm) tall at the withers. Roosevelt elk bulls generally weigh between 700 and 1,100 pounds (320 and 500 kg), while cows weigh 575–625 lb (261–283 kg).
The public source identifies “Roosevelt elk” as large North American mammal. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Roosevelt, Large and North.
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Stable identifiers, scientific names and standards terminology offer the best bridge between this overview and specialist evidence. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q1060769. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference. The first chronological checks are 1928, 1986, 1897 and 1909.
Scientific names, classifications and consensus can change while older terminology persists in catalogues and historical literature. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roosevelt elk” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.