The Manchurian wapiti's coat is reddish brown during summer, and brownish gray in winter.

This deer is the most red deer-like of the wapiti, being adapted to mixed deciduous forest environments in Manchuria, Yakutia, Northern China, Eastern Mongolia, and North Korea.

[1][2] Manchurian wapiti are considered the smallest among the other elks, in other parts of Manchuria they may have larger sizes.

Similar forms from Alxa, Gansu, Shanxi and southern Mongolia were originally described as a distinct subspecies, the Alashan wapiti (Cervus canadensis alashanicus).

[4] However, due to the insufficient genetic material that rejects monophyly of C. canadensis, the 2006 study considered it premature to include the Manchurian wapiti as a true subspecies of wapiti, and that it likely needs to be elevated to its own species, C.