The Irish Elk is misrepresented by its name, they were neighter exclusively Irish nor were they elk. They were one of the largest deer that ever lived whose skeletons have been found in Europe, Asia, and Africa. They are called Irish because a great number of well preserved skeletons were found in the peat bogs of Ireland.

They weighed between 1300-1500 lbs., stood about 6.9 feet tall, and had the largest antlers of any known deer. Their antlers, at their most, stretched 12 feet long- from tip to tip. Comparatively, the average antler on deer still alive range from 3"-60" (approximately). 

These enormous animals fell victim to the Ice Age and dropped into extinction around 10,500 years ago. If these deer had managed to live through the Ice Age and subsequent years, what would it have been like to have them be among us? Would we place their antlers over our mantle places, keep them captive in zoos? I think that most people tend to think of an animal's value only in relation to themselves. This is evident in our obsession with pets, zoos, and whole websites devoted to baby animals. I think we love animals because we love how they make us feel.

The dodo's personal date of extinction remains speculative, but it is widely accepted that it happened between 1688 and 1715 and was mostly caused by human intervention. The etymology of their name is also rather unclear. Some suggest that it is an onomatopoeic approximation of it's call "doo-doo". Still, others believe that it comes from the Portuguese word for fool: doudo. 
Dodos rose to prominence with the publication of Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. One made a brief appearance in chapter 3, where he conducts a Caucus race where an assortment of animals runs around in circles, starting and stopping whenever they pleased, and bestowing Alice with her own thimble after she has given all the participants the comfits in her pocket.


These oddly shaped, flightless birds have become a symbol for things that have dropped into antiquity or extinction.