Moose

Moose subspecies:

European Moose

Alces alces alces

The European elk, which lives in Asia, is sometimes called the West Siberian elk.

DISTRIBUTION. In the European part of Russia – wherever there are forests. Rare animals enter Western Europe. But the elk is also common in the north of Europe – in Norway, Sweden, Finland, Belarus and eastern Poland. The European elk also lives in the Asian part of Russia: in Western Siberia to the east of the Ural Mountains to the Yenisei River and Altai, in the Urals – its range is a narrow belt approximately along the 60th parallel. Also found in adjacent parts of northern Kazakhstan and to the southern foothills of the Mongolian Altai in the far north of Xinjiang (China).

Yakut moose

Alces alces pfizenmayeri

It is also called the Central Siberian moose and, sometimes, the Lena moose.

DISTRIBUTION. From the Yenisei River to the east through the rest of Siberia and the Far East, excluding the ranges of the Chukchi and Amur subspecies. The edge of the range extends to northern Mongolia.

Amur moose

Alces alces cameloides

It is also called the Ussuri moose.

DISTRIBUTION. Primorye and Amur region in the Russian Far East, reaching north to the foot of the Stanovoy Range and west to approximately 123° east longitude. Also in northern Heilongjiang and in the extreme northeast of Inner Mongolia (China).

Chukotka Moose

Alces alces buturlini

It is also called the East Siberian and Far Eastern moose, sometimes the Kamchatka moose, which is actually incorrect. The scientific name is given in honor of the Russian scientist S. A. Buturlin, who first described this subspecies in 1934.

DISTRIBUTION. The northern Far East - from the Alazeya River basin to the east through the Kolyma and Anadyr River basins and to the south through the Penzhina River basin and the Koryak Highlands to Kamchatka. Elks on the Kamchatka Peninsula, where there were no elks before, were introduced from the Anadyr River basin. Some experts also include moose from the Indigirka River in this subspecies, but they are smaller and most likely a cross between the Yakut moose.