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The Caucasian moose, also known as the Caucasian elk[1][2] (Alces alces caucasicus) is an extinct subspecies of moose found in the Black Sea and the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe and Asia Minor, in modern-day European Russia, Armenia,[2] Azerbaijan, Georgia, and eastern Turkey and north and west iran.
| Caucasian moose | |
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Subfamily: | Capreolinae |
| Genus: | Alces |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | †A. a. caucasicus
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| Trinomial name | |
| †Alces alces caucasicus (Weretschagin, 1955)
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Extinction
editThe subspecies was quite common until the mid-19th century, when populations began to decrease due to overhunting. It became extinct sometime in the beginning of the 20th century.[2]
Predators
editAmong its likely predators were the Anatolian or Persian leopard (also called the Caucasus leopard), Asiatic black bear, Eurasian brown bear, steppe wolves, the Asiatic lion (now restricted to India’s Gir Forest) and the now-extinct Caspian tiger;[2] The Eurasian lynx, golden eagles and the Asiatic cheetah—now restricted to Iran—all may have occasionally preyed on calves.
See also
editReferences
edit- ^ Wrobel, Murray (2006-11-18). Elsevier's Dictionary of Mammals. Elsevier. ISBN 9780080488820.
- ^ a b c d Manaseryan, Nina; Gyonjyan2, Andranik. "THE CHANGE OF THE ANTHROPOGENE FAUNA OF ARMENIA". Scientific Center of Zoology and Hydroecology, Institute of Zoology, NAS of Republic of Armenia.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
External links
edit- Caucasian Moose – Extinct Archived 2011-04-22 at the Wayback Machine.
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