Alces alces ssp. caucasicus (Caucasian Moose)

[Prolagus]

The Caucasian Moose - Alces alces caucasicus, lived until 1810 in the area of the northern Caucasus. It was a little subspecies of the Moose, weigthed only 300 - 400 kilogramms and only 160 - 170centimeters high on the shoulder.

[Melanie]

Cave painting from Armenia (Caucasus) which is showing a moose

Click here for image

grants.iatp.irex.am/red_book/biosphere/extinct_animals.htm

[another specialist]

A. a. caucasicus Vereshchagin, 1955
Alces alces caucasicus Vereshchagin, 1955; , TL: Kuban, Terek, N. Caucasus
Cervus alces caucasicus ; [MPR], 202

www.funet.fi/pub/sci/bio/life/mammalia/artiodactyla/cervidae/alces/index.html

[another specialist]

TAXONOMIC NOTES There is one living race of European moose (alces) and one extinct race (caucasicus). The latter occurred in the Circassian foothills (western Caucasus), but died out at the beginning of the 19th century. Its skull was smaller and differed in minor features, and its antlers were weak and unpalmated.

www.trophyhunt.ru/eng/hunting-tours/European-Moose.php

[Peter]

Alces alces caucasicus - died out !!
Caucasian Moose
Kaukasischer Elch

Discoverer: N. Vereshchagin, 1955
Area: Northern forests of Caucasia

This small subspecies (head-length 53-54 cm) became unfortunately extinct in the beginning 19th century!

Population: Extinct !

Source: www.sattler-photo.com/pages/pages_gallery/main/moose/gallery_main_moose_habitat.htm

[another specialist]

melanie said:

Cave painting from Armenia (Caucasus) which is showing a moose

Click here for image

grants.iatp.irex.am/red_book/biosphere/extinct_animals.htm

here is image in my photobucket account

[sebbe67]

www.freepler.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgi?user=swift1

website originally posted by Alex (Noisi) in the website thread, some info in German, four pics and a photo, but I dont known if the pics or the photo is of the Caucasian Moose

[Melanie]

from my photbucket album (source freepler website)

sebbe67 said:

www.freepler.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgi?user=swift1

website originally posted by Alex (Noisi) in the website thread, some info in German, four pics and a photo, but I dont known if the pics or the photo is of the Caucasian Moose

[another specialist]

Does any information accompany the above images to say its this subspecies? or are they just pics of moose in general?

[RSN]

I have the same doubt...the horns varies pic to pic.

[Melanie]

The website says it is of this subspecies especially the last two pictures.

anotherspecialist said:

Does any information accompany the above images to say its this subspecies? or are they just pics of moose in general?

[another specialist]

Thanks melanie so atleast the last to may be correct and the first two are just generalised.

[another specialist]

Deer of the World
By Valerius Geist

[Peter]

Citation of first description:
Vereshchagin, N., (1955). L’elan du Caucase (Alces alces caucasicus n. ssp.) et matériaux pour l’historie des élans dans le Caucase. Zoologische Zhurnal 34 (2), 460–463 (in Russian).

[Peter]

Caucasian moose (A. a. caucasicus) in the Caucasus area were eliminated by the beginning of the 20th century. Repopulation of the north Caucasus region by this subspecies in the 20th century indicates that Caucasian and European moose habitats were probably well connected in the past, and calls into question whether to identify Caucasian moose as a separate subspecies (Danilkin 1999). The subspecies status seems more appropriate for the moose population in the westernmost part of Europe.

Source of quote: Sipko, Taras P. and Kholodova, Marina V. (2009). Fragmentation of Eurasian moose populations during periods of population depression. Alces 45: 25-34. bolt.lakeheadu.ca/~alceswww/Vol45/Alces45_25.pdf

Citation mentioned in quote: Danilkin, A. A. (1999). The Deer (Cervidae), Mammals of Russia and Adjacent Regions.
Moscow, Russia. (In Russian).

[Bhagatí]

Looking at, what I found just a moment ago.


Павловский Е.Н. The mammals of the Caucasus : a history of the evolution of the fauna — Moscow 1959.

Source: club-monadire.ge/topic/1822-%E1%83%99%E1%83%90%E1%83%95%E1%83%99%E1%83%90%E1%83%A1%E1%83%98%E1%83%A3%E1%83%A0%E1%83%98-%E1%83%AA%E1%83%AE%E1%83%94%E1%83%9C%E1%83%98%E1%83%A0%E1%83%94%E1%83%9B%E1%83%98-alces-alces-caucasicus/

Here are all the book work from Павловский Е.Н.
Works. Showing 51 to 60 of 84 entries

Source: viaf.org/viaf/25472744/

[Bhagatí]

There is this photos of caucasian moose from this book:

The mammals of the Caucasus; a history of the evolution of the fauna. (Mlekopitayushchie Kavkaza; istoriya formirovaniya fauny)
by Vereshchagin, N. K. (Nikolai Kuzmich)













from Source: archive.org/details/mammalsofcaucasu00vere/

[Peter]

Morphological characters, such as body size, antler shape, coat colour and premaxillary shape, divide A. alces into two major groups: one in Europe and northwestern Asia to the Yenisei River (~90°E) that we term the ‘western lineage’, and another in northeastern Asia and North America, the ‘eastern lineage’ (Flerov, 1960; Groves & Grubb 1987; Geist, 1999; Lister, 2005). Up to nine subspecies are recognized: one in Europe and western Asia, one (extinct) in the Caucasus region, three in eastern Asia and four in North America (Groves & Grubb 1987; Trense, 1989; Vereshchagin, 1955). However, this ninefold division has been questioned on both morphological and genetic grounds (Flerov, 1960; Groves & Grubb 1987; Geist, 1999).

Meirav Meiri, Adrian Lister, Pavel Kosintsev, Grant Zazula, Ian Barnes (2020). Population dynamics and range shifts of moose (Alces alces) during the Late Quaternary. Journal of Biogeography, Volume 47, Issue 10, Pages 2223-2234. doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13935