# The "Elk" unit has appearance and sound of two distinctly different animals **URL:** \ **Category:** II - Discussion\ **Created:** [September 23, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881 "2026-09-23T08:25:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hjoerleif](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/hjoerleif/32/119250_2.png) [@Hjoerleif](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Hjoerleif)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 8:25am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/1 "2026-09-23T08:25:37Z")
The unit has the appearance of a moose (alces alces) which is also (but rarely) still called elk by British English speakers. The alces alces has flat-surfaced bowl like antlers, flat nose, and chin flap, just as depicted in the game. The sound it makes however, is that of an elk (cervus canadensis) which is a large deer also known as wapiti found in North America. The wapiti has a pointy nose, thin pointy antlers with no flat surfaces, and no chin flap, unlike as depicted in the game. The “Elk” unit sound in the game: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/EHBN78rW1lA/maxresdefault.jpg "Elk sound in AoE2DE") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EHBN78rW1lA) Alces alces sound: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/7NR2FpsHSfw/maxresdefault.jpg "Moose Sounds") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NR2FpsHSfw) Cervus canadensis sound: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/9TW8Gf3kF4Q/maxresdefault.jpg "Elk Bugle") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TW8Gf3kF4Q) ---
**Author:** ![Grandy02](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/grandy02/32/201751_2.png) [@Grandy02](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Grandy02)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:22pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/2 "2026-09-23T13:22:16Z")
Good catch, I had the feeling something isn’t right when I heard the animal’s in-game call the first time… If even devs are confused by the animal’s names, maybe they should just have used the most common name in the English-speaking world today, moose. While the word was not used in Medieval Europe, they also use other terms and spellings that only appeared after the game’s timeframe (e.g. a donkey would have been called an “ass”, and nobody in the ancient world knew about a “juggernaut” ship). Now that the elk/wapiti sounds are in the game, maybe they can introduce an appropriate unit, for additional deer variety, instead of removing them when proper moose sounds are added? Besides North America, _Cervus canadensis_ subspecies also live in parts of Asia. ---
**Author:** ![casusincorrabil](https://forums.ageofempires.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/c/5f8ce5/32.png) [@casusincorrabil](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/casusincorrabil)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2026, 1:30pm UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/3 "2026-09-23T13:30:08Z")
This isn’t just an ordinary Elk / Moose. It’s EL KMOOSE! ---
**Author:** ![Thire7](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/thire7/32/171912_2.png) [@Thire7](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Thire7)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 3:40am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/4 "2026-09-25T03:40:45Z")
The least they could have done is add a string to allow map makers to easily rename them to Moose. ---
**Author:** ![NarrowBubbles54](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/narrowbubbles54/32/202706_2.png) [@NarrowBubbles54](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/NarrowBubbles54)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 6:15am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/5 "2026-09-25T06:15:38Z")
Love it you know, but it look more dangerous than boar. They are speed high ---
**Author:** ![Hjoerleif](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/hjoerleif/32/119250_2.png) [@Hjoerleif](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/Hjoerleif)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 8:53am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/6 "2026-09-25T08:53:18Z")
That’s an easy mod, here: > **[Mods Single - Age of Empires - World's Edge Studio](https://www.ageofempires.com/mods/details/550014/)** ---
**Author:** ![smiki5five](https://forums.ageofempires.com/user_avatar/forums.ageofempires.com/smiki5five/32/217730_2.png) [@smiki5five](https://forums.ageofempires.com/u/smiki5five)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2026, 9:56am UTC](https://forums.ageofempires.com/t/the-elk-unit-has-appearance-and-sound-of-two-distinctly-different-animals/289881/7 "2026-09-25T09:56:22Z")
It wouldn’t fix the sound issues, it still uses the wapiti sound