The Irish Elk

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An Irish Elk stands proudly in a dense forest.

The Irish Elk, a.k.a. Megaloceros giganteus, is a mammal that went extinct rather recently (about 8000 years ago). It was almost certainly hunted by early humans and is depicted in many cave paintings. Despite it's name, it was not exclusive to Ireland nor was it closely related to elks. Rather, it was species of deer that ranged throughout Europe and parts of Asia. It likely went extinct due to climate change and being pushed out of its habitat by expanding neolithic human populations.

The animal was sculpted, posed and polypainted in ZBrush then imported into Vue where the rest of the scene was created. Final rendering was done in Vue and took about two days on an Intel I5 2.8 GHz with 8 GB of RAM. Post production was done in GIMP.