HOLY ELK!

Look what we found at the Kilkenny Castle in Ireland. They are REAL antlers from a prehistoric Irish elk! AND (according to our guide) they are mounted on the wall at their actual height! They are the largest deer that ever lived, and went extinct between 8,000 and 6,000 years ago. They earned the name Irish elk because so many bodies were preserved in Irish peat bogs. These massive ungulates weighed between weighed 990-1,520 pounds and stood as tall as an Alaskan moose at 6 feet 11 inches at the shoulders! The size of their antlers was utterly staggering. In fact, that is very likely the cause of their extinction. Many agree that their huge antler size may have contributed to a mineral deficiency which ultimately killed the animal off. So at least it wasn’t humans!