HOME | DD

Description

Megaloceros giganteus, the Irish or giant elk, enjoying a warm but windy August day back in the Eemian interglacial, about 120 000 years ago. He's standing in a thicket of fireweed, a pioneer plant often growing at the sites of recent wildfires. Young red-backed shrikes, hatched this spring and now left behind by their migrating parents, are using his giant antlers as a convenient hunting perch. These species would have shared habitat - both the elk and the shrike like to find themselves at the edges of forests, such as natural clearings. The elk doesn't mind - he attracts biting insects, which the shrikes skillfully snatch from midair.

Based on the Megaloceros specimen at display at the Chicago Field Museum.

Description

Megaloceros giganteus, the Irish or giant elk, enjoying a warm but windy August day back in the Eemian interglacial, about 120 000 years ago. He's standing in a thicket of fireweed, a pioneer plant often growing at the sites of recent wildfires. Young red-backed shrikes, hatched this spring and now left behind by their migrating parents, are using his giant antlers as a convenient hunting perch. These species would have shared habitat - both the elk and the shrike like to find themselves at the edges of forests, such as natural clearings. The elk doesn't mind - he attracts biting insects, which the shrikes skillfully snatch from midair.

Based on the Megaloceros specimen at display at the Chicago Field Museum.