TRAITS AND HABITS OF THE ELK 301' 



The age usually attained by the elk is stated by 

 most writers to be from 16 to 20 years. Marten- 

 son, however, credits the elk with sometimes 

 attaining an age of from 30 to 36 years. He 

 cites no specific instance where a specimen was 

 known to have reached such an age, but draws 

 his conclusion largely from a formula of zoologists 

 that among mammals the average attainable age 

 is seven times the period required to attain full 

 growth. Martenson tells of a female elk in the 

 forest of Ibenhorst which was easily identified by 

 reason of the loss of the left eye and by other 

 marks. Yearly from 1854 to 1865 she bore two 

 calves, then was barren for three years, but in 1869 

 and 1870 bore one calf each year. '*Shc was 

 accordingly at least twenty years old in 1870, but 

 showed at that time no signs of old age."^ 



Dr. Blasius, while quoting the same formula, 

 gives the length of life of the elk as only from 16 to 

 20 years. He adds that while the life of the elk is 

 relatively shorter than that of most mammals, 

 this condition is offset by the elk's superiority 

 with respect to producing young.^ In the case of 

 most species of deer a single fawn is born each 

 season, but the female elk commonly bears two 



» Martenson, Der Elch (Riga, 1903), pp. 15-16. 

 3 Ubi supra, p. 273. 



