Mark Christie, age 9, Of Welch., W.Va.., for his question:

What is a wapiti?

The wapiti eras named by the Shawnee Indians. His name means pale, though his coat is a mixture of light and dark browns. But he is a lot lighter than his cousin, the bulky moose. The Indians named him wapiti, the pale one, because he is paler than the dark, brown moose. He is also a lot more handscate than his dark, bulky cousin.

The deer are handsome animal~ and very graceful. But the giant of the family

Would never win a beauty contest. He is the big headed, shaggy moose with wide, flat antlers that look like clumsy wings. The shoulders of this fellow are as high as a tall man, and, he by tip the scales at three quarters of a ton. The wapiti is the second  biggest,  of the most handsome deer in the world.

At one time, herds of wapiti roamed over most of North America. Many of them have been hunted dawn., and nowadays we find them only in the western mountains. There may be 12 to 20 members in a herd. One is the papa wapiti, and the rest are his wives and children.

The wapitis back is highest at his shoulders. Here he is just over five feet tall., which is almost a foot shorter than the great moose. As a rule, he weighs less than half a ton. His smooth coat is light brown, but around his neck he wears a shaggy shawl of rich, chestnut colored fur.

The antlers that crown his proud head are his pride and ,joy. Trio graceful branches spread out from his forehead. There may be five pointed prongs on each antler, and from side to side the branches measure perhaps five feet. The papa wapiti uses his elegant antlers to defend himself and his family from wolves and coyotes. He can even defeat a mountain lion or a bear.

You may wonder why you have not hued more about this mighty stag. Chances are you have heard about him or seen pictures of him under a different name. In everyday language, he is called the elk, and We tend to take him for granted as one of the native deer of North America. But he is the second largest deer in the world. He is a brave and noble animal, always ready to defend his family, and his mighty antlers are strong enough to gore and perhaps kill a mountain lion.

Male elks also fight among themselves. Sometimes a young elk finds himself without a family of his own, while some older elk has a very large family. The young elk utters a long, loud bugle call and challenges the old fellow to a duel. The fighters lower their heads and butt each other with their antlers. After a few whacks, one elk usually knows he cannot win and sensibly trots away. Sometimes, however, the two male elks will fight until they kill each other.