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The moose (North America) or elk (Eurasia), ''Alces alces'', is the largest extant species in the deer family. Moose are distinguished by the palmate antlers of the males; other members of the family have antlers with a dendritic ("twig-like") configuration. Moose typically inhabit boreal and mixed deciduous forests of the Northern Hemisphere in temperate to subarctic climates. Moose used to have a much wider range but hunting and other human activities have greatly reduced it. Moose have been reintroduced to some of their former habitats. Currently, most moose are found in Canada, Alaska, Scandinavia, Latvia, Estonia, New England and Russia. Their diet consists of both terrestrial and aquatic vegetation. The most common moose predators are wolves, bears and humans. Unlike most other deer species, moose are solitary animals and do not form herds. Although generally slow-moving and sedentary, moose can become aggressive and move quickly if angered or startled. Their mating season in the autumn can lead to spectacular fights between males competing for a female. == Etymology and naming == In summary, this large animal, ''Alces alces'', is always called a "moose" in American English but called an "elk" in British English. That same word "elk," as used by a North American, means a completely different and only somewhat related animal, wapiti ''Cervus canadensis''. A mature male is called a bull, a mature female a cow, and an immature moose of either sex a calf. The word "elk" originated from Proto-Germanic languages, from which Old English evolved. The British English word "elk" has cognates in other Indo-European languages, for example ''elg'' in Danish/Norwegian; ''älg'' in Swedish; ''alnis'' in Latvian; ''Elch'' in German; and ''łoś'' in Polish (Latin ''alcē'' or ''alcēs'' and Greek ἅλκη ''álkē'' are probably Germanic loanwords).〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Online Etymology Dictionary – elk )〕 In the continental-European languages, these forms of the word "elk" almost always refer to the ''Alces alces''. The word "moose" first entered English by 1606 and is borrowed from the Algonquian languages (compare the Narragansett ''moos'' and Eastern Abenaki ''mos''; according to early sources, these were likely derived from ''moosu'', meaning "he strips off"), and possibly involved forms from multiple languages mutually reinforcing one another. The Proto-Algonquian form was '' *mo·swa''. The term "moose" is a name of North American origin, and the scientific name ''Alces alces'' comes from its Latin name. The animal was known in Britain as the "elk."〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=elk, n.1 )〕 The moose went extinct in Britain during the Bronze Age, long before the Europeans' discovery of America. The youngest bones were found in Scotland and are roughly 3900 years old.〔''Feral: Rewilding the Land, the Sea, and Human Life'' By George Monbiot -- University of Chicago press 2014 Page 124〕 The word "elk" remained in usage because of its existence in continental Europe but, without any living animals around to serve as a reference, the meaning became rather vague to most ancient speakers of English, who used "elk" to refer to "large deer" in general.〔Mallory, JP and DQ Adams (2006). ''The Oxford introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European world'' Oxford University Press. Page 133〕 Dictionaries of the 18th century simply described "elk" as a deer that was "as large as a horse".〔Bailey, Nathan (1731). ''An Universal Etymological English Dictionary'' Royal Exchange. Page EL--EM.〕 Confusingly, the word "elk" is used in North America to refer to a different animal, ''Cervus canadensis'', which is also called by the Algonkian indigenous name, "wapiti". The British began colonizing America in the 17th century, and found two common species of deer for which they had no names. The wapiti appeared very similar to the red deer of Europe (which itself was almost extinct in Southern Britain) although it was a lot larger and was not red.〔 The moose was a rather strange looking deer to the colonists, and they often adopted local names for both. In the early days of American colonization, the wapiti was often called a grey moose and the moose was often called a black moose, but early accounts of the animals varied wildly, adding to the confusion.〔Royal Society (Great Britain) (1736). ''Philosophical Transactions and Collections, Volume 9.'' p.84.〕 The wapiti is very similar to the red deer of central and western Europe, although it is distinctly different behaviorally and genetically. Early European explorers in North America, particularly in Virginia where there were no moose, called the wapiti "elk" because of its size and resemblance to familiar-looking deer like the red deer.〔''The Book of Animal Ignorance: Everything You Think You Know Is Wrong'' By John Mitchinson, John Lloyd -- Harmony Books 2007 Page 141〕 The moose resembled the "German elk" (the moose of continental Europe), which was less familiar to the British colonists. For a long time neither species had an official name, but were called a variety of things. Eventually, in North America the wapiti became known as an elk while the moose retained its Anglicized Native-American name.〔 In 1736, Samuel Dale wrote to the Royal Society of Great Britain:
== Habitat, range, and distribution == 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「moose」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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