<P> The wapiti is superficially 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 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: </P> <P> The common light - grey moose, called by the Indians, Wampoose, and the large or black - moose, which is the beast whose horns I herewith present . As to the grey moose, I take it to be no larger than what Mr. John Clayton, in his account of the Virginia Quadrupeds, calls the Elke...was in all respects like those of our red - deer or stags, only larger...The black moose is (by all that have hitherto writ of it) accounted a very large creature...The stag, buck, or male of this kind has a palmed horn, not like that of our common or fallow - deer, but the palm is much longer, and more like that of the German elke . </P> <P> After expanding for most of the 20th century, the moose population of North America has been in steep decline since the 1990s . Populations expanded greatly with improved habitat and protection, but for unknown reasons, the moose population is declining rapidly . In North America, the moose range includes almost all of Canada (excluding the arctic and Vancouver Island), most of Alaska, northern New England and upstate New York, the upper Rocky Mountains, northern Minnesota, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and Isle Royale in Lake Superior . This massive range, containing diverse habitats, contains four of the six North American subspecies . In the West, moose populations extend well north into Canada (British Columbia and Alberta), and more isolated groups have been verified as far south as the mountains of Utah and Colorado and as far west as the Lake Wenatchee area of the Washington Cascades . The range includes Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, and smaller areas of Washington and Oregon . Moose have extended their range southwards in the western Rocky Mountains, with initial sightings in Yellowstone National Park in 1868, and then to the northern slope of the Uinta Mountains in Utah in the first half of the twentieth century . This is the southernmost naturally established moose population in the United States . In 1978, a few breeding pairs were reintroduced in western Colorado, and the state's moose population is now more than 1,000 . </P> <P> In northeastern North America, the Eastern moose's history is very well documented: moose meat was often a staple in the diet of Native Americans going back centuries, and it is a tribe that occupied present day coastal Rhode Island that gave this deer its distinctive name in American English . The Native Americans often used moose hides for leather and its meat as an ingredient in pemmican, a type of dried jerky used as a source of sustenance in winter or on long journeys . Eastern tribes also valued moose leather as a source for moccasins and other items . </P>

Where do moose live in the united states
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