Eastern elk

Eastern elk
Illustration of the extinct elk subspecies Cervus canadensis canadensis, John James Audubon 1847
Conservation status
Extinct (1877)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Genus:	Cervus
Species:	C. canadensis
Subspecies:	†C. c. canadensis
Trinomial name
†Cervus canadensis canadensis (Erxleben, 1777)

The eastern elk (Cervus canadensis canadensis) is an extinct subspecies or distinct population of elk that inhabited the northern and eastern United States, and southern Canada. The last eastern elk was shot in Pennsylvania on September 1, 1877.^[1][2] The subspecies was declared extinct by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service in 1880.^[3] Another subspecies of elk, the Merriam's elk, also became extinct at roughly the same time.

As of 2017, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has reclassified all North American elk subspecies aside from the tule and Roosevelt elk as C. c. canadensis. 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]