Caribou - Ontario

Ontario is Canada’s most populous province, accounting for almost 40% of Canada’s population. Ontario had been part of Québec until emerging as a separate entity in 1792. New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Québec, became the first four provinces during the 1867 formation of the Canadian Confederation.

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Rangifer tarandus - The caribou of the Americas, Europe, and Asia belong to a single species, but there are three subspecies of caribou inhabiting North America: the woodland, the barren-ground, and the Perry. Caribou are different from the other members of deer; the male and female generally carry antlers with the antlers of the male being much larger. Caribou herds have been migrating across Canada for millions of years and have the longest migration route of any terrestrial mammal; annually, they travel over 5,000 kilometers.

Moose - Maine

Although Maine did not share a border with Massachusetts, it had been part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony since 1652. A vote to secede from Massachusetts failed in 1804, but another attempt in 1820 was successful. Maine joined the union as part of a larger plan known as the Missouri Compromise.

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Alces alces - The moose is native to North America and the northern regions of Europe and Asia where is referred to as an elk. The moose is the largest member of the deer family. In the Americas, the moose inhabits the wooded areas of Canada and the Northeastern United States. The males carry an enormous display of antlers; they are shed each year after the mating season. It is the only member of the deer family featuring palmate antlers, leaf shaped, as opposed to the more common dendritic antlers, twig shaped.

White-tailed Deer - Virginia

The Confederate States of America was founded in Montgomery, Alabama; Montgomery served briefly as the first capital of the Confederacy. In May, 1861, the capital was moved to Richmond, Virginia as an encouragement for the bordering states of Delaware, Kentucky, and Maryland to join the Confederacy.

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Odocoileus virginianus - The white-tailed deer has an extensive range stretching from Canada to Bolivia. A subspecies, the Columbian white-tailed deer of Oregon and Washington, is considered an endangered species. The white-tailed is a ruminate, an animal with a specialized digestive system allowing it to eat grass and other plant based foods low in nutritional value. The food is first passed to a section of the stomach to be processed by bacterial actions. It is then regurgitated for additional chewing before final digestion.

Wapiti - Uzbekistan

Despite being a large country, Uzbekistan is one of only two countries in the world known as a double-landlocked country. This term describes a country surrounded by other countries without access to the open sea. The other country fitting this description is Liechtenstein, one of the smallest countries in the world.

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Cervus wallichii - A full-grown wapiti, also referred to as an elk, stands 1.5 meters at the shoulders and can weigh up to 340 kilos. The antlers of the wapiti are shed each year in early winter and begin to show again in early April as small velvet covered buds. The antlers are true bone structures and grow at rates of 2.5 centimeters per day. By the end of May, the antlers are well developed. The protective velvet covering begins to peel off in September, a time when the boney material of the antler has fully dried and hardened.

Central European Red Deer - Brandenburg

A plebiscite held in 1996, six years after Germany’s reunification, offered the people of Berlin and Brandenburg the choice of merging their two states; Berlin is completed surrounded by Brandenburg. The referendum was rejected; most Berliners had voted “yes” but the heavy “no” vote from Brandenburg prevailed. 

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Cervus elaphus hippelaphus - The central European red deer is a subspecies of the red deer, the fourth largest of the Cervus family; the moose, elk, and sambar deer are larger. Antlers begin a rapid growth cycle in spring prior to the rutting season and are shed after winter. Females are smaller in size and lack antlers. The red deer does not migrate. It does move to lower slopes and denser wooded areas during the winter. Both sexes grow a winter coat, with older males developing a noticeable neck mane during the autumn.

Irish Elk - Ireland

The land bridge connecting Britain to the European mainland was severed 6,500 years ago, but Ireland had broken off from Britain several thousands years earlier. This allowed only some species from the mainland to cross the land bridge. Snakes, being slower in colonizing new areas, did not have time to cross into Ireland.

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Megaloceros giganteus - The Irish elk appeared 400,000 years ago and could be found from Ireland to Siberia and into Northern Africa. It stood over 2 meters at the shoulders and carried a rack of antlers with a spread of over 3.5 meters, the largest of any known cervid. With massive antlers and long powerful legs, the elk could out run or successfully face the few predators daring to challenge. The Irish elk became extinct 8,000 years ago. It could not escape early human hunters nor the environmental issues occurring in the Late Pleistocene.