If this is accurate, this means that the subspecies is not extinct, and has returned to the eastern U.S. in the form of the Rocky Mountain elk, introduced to the region in the 20th century.

[4] A full-grown bull could weigh up to 1,000 pounds, stand 50-60 inches tall at the shoulder, and carry a rack of antlers six feet in length.

As people continued to settle in the region over the next few centuries, elk populations decreased due to over-hunting and the loss of their dense woodland habitat.

Naturalist John James Audubon reportedly mentioned that by 1851, a few elk could still be found in the Allegheny Mountains, but that they were virtually gone from the remainder of their range.

Successful elk populations have now been introduced in Arkansas (1991),[8] Wisconsin (1995), Ontario (2001), Kentucky, Tennessee and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 2002, Michigan in 1919, the Missouri Ozarks (2011),[9] and in 2012 Virginia.

Even though the animal population had successfully adapted to the harsh terrain, several factors likely contributed to a dilution of the pure gene pool.

To wit, removal of protection in 1935; the crossbreeding with red deer that spread into the area; the gazetting of the Fiordland region as a national park in 1952; and the resulting status of the elk and all introduced game species being relegated to that of noxious animals, or pests, by the government agencies of the time has seen the wild herd go into decline.

Today, that herd is but a shadow of its former self, being comprised now only of crossbreeds of varying degree that have defied the efforts of government agencies to exterminate or remove them from Fiordland.