GIANT DEER HEAD AT MUSEUM

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 183, 30 April 1940, Page 6

GIANT DEER HEAD AT MUSEUM

Extinct Irish Elk

LIKE THE FIGMENT OF A DEERSTALKER’S DREAM

The giant antlers of an extinct Irish elk of prehistoric times have been presented to the Dominion Museum by Mr. G. J. W. Cooper, ’Wellington. The antlers, with the skull to which they are attached, were found in a bog. in Ireland. They measure nine feet iu spread, and are tremendously palmated, with many Hues some three feet in length. They form the kind of trophy of which deerstalkers dream, but can never hope to obtain from any living stag. The antlers are in excellent condition, though a number of fractures have had to be repaired by Mr. C. Lindsay, the museum taxidermist. They are of considerable value, similar heads having changed hands in the past at from £lOO to £l5O. Though a magnificent head, this is not regarded as a big one; Irish elk antlers have been found measuring up to 12ft. in spread. Only two similar heads are known to be in New Zealand. One is already in possession of the Dominion Museum, but is not as flue a head as the present one. The other, also a smaller head, but part of a complete skeleton, is iu the Canterbury Museum. The Irish elk, which was a contemporary of the mammoth, and the quarry of some of the earliest human hunters, was one of the biggest of the deer family. It stood about six feet at the shoulder, and was in fact much the same size as a moose; but the antlers were enormously large in proportion to the animal’s body. The skull appears absurdly small in comparison with the weight it had to sustain; and it is hard to believe that these giant antlers were s'hed and re-grown yearly like those of the common red deer. The Irish elk was actually closely related to the fallow deer of today.. For purposes of comparison, two other heads of deer and the horns of an African buffalo, also presented by Mr. Cooper, will also be placed on exhibition with the elk head. One is a particularly fine head of a present-daj’ elk, or wapiti. This is the biggest true deer still living, and its antlers are often of considerable size—up to five feet iu spread. The other is a moose head, which is of very similar formation to, though very much smaller than, the prehistoric head. These two heads are both of North American origin, though both moose and wapiti are acclimatized in New Zealand. The buffalo head is also interesting on account of the massive formation of the horns.

It is expected that the antlers will be'on exhibition at the museum before the end of this week.