As a writer about the natural world, Andrew Moore has a pretty good idea what animals belong where. But several years back, a news item took him by surprise. Elk, it read, were being reintroduced to southern West Virginia.
Wait, Moore thought: Reintroduced? These massive ungulates — mature bulls can weigh half a ton — once lived just a few hours’ drive south of his home in Pittsburgh?
“I couldn’t really picture this animal that I associated with the West in the Appalachian Mountains of West Virginia,” he said…