Water deer

The height of the shoulder is roughly equal to the height of the hip. Both sexes have no horns. The canine teeth on the male are well developed and protrude outside the mouth. There are two cartilaginous ridges at the base of the ears, with slightly pointed tips. The limbs are strong and powerful, and the hooves are thick and blunt. The tail is short. There is a pair of inguinal glands in the groin. The hair is thick and long, and the winter hair on the sides and waist is up to 40 mm long and wavy. The back and sides of the body are the same color, brownish yellow. The back of the ear is brown, the inside of the ear is grayish white, and the chin and upper throat are white. The center of the abdomen and the groin are light yellow. The limbs are brownish yellow.
The limbs are strong and developed, the shoulder height is slightly lower than the hip height, and the tail is very short, almost covered by the hair on the hip. The body hair is mostly brownish yellow, grayish yellow, thick

Origin: China, South Korea and North Korea.
Introduction: France and the United Kingdom.
Distributed along the Yangtze River in China and North Korea.
Lives in mountain grassy slopes and shrubs, grassy slopes, and does not go up high mountains. It likes to live in reeds in wet places or swamps such as river banks and lakes. It lives in river banks, lakesides, lake center grass beaches, beaches with reeds or thatched grass, and also lives in low hills and island forest edges. They choose grassy beaches or sparse shrub habitats with water nearby.

The deer is called River Deer in foreign languages. It has two subspecies and is slightly larger than musk deer. The Compendium of Materia Medica says: "Deer have no fragrance. Musk deer have fragrance, which is commonly known as earth musk deer and is called fragrant deer."

Musk deer do not form large groups, but live or move in pairs, with a maximum of 3-5 together. They often move in a leaping and rapid manner. Musk deer are timid by nature, with erect ears, sensitive senses, good at hiding, and good at swimming, making it difficult for people to get close to them.

Male musk deer are very territorial animals and will mark their territory with urine and feces. When other males invade, if the threat is ineffective, the male musk deer in the territory will attack the other party. In the fight, both sides will use their fangs to try to stab the other side's head, neck or back. The fight usually ends when one side bows its head to admit defeat or runs away. Female musk deer are not very territorial outside the breeding season, but doe deer will show aggression around the time when fawns are born, driving away other doe deer that approach the fawns.

Musk deer breed once a year, and the breeding season is often marked with secretions from the infraorbital glands and feces and urine. There is a clear breeding season, but the estrus period varies with location and age. Estrus mating is mostly concentrated in winter. In China, mating occurs between November and January of the following year, with a peak in December. The gestation period is about 6 months, and most cubs are born in late May and June. In European zoos, mating usually occurs in May. At this time, the male will follow the female and determine whether the female is in estrus based on the smell. Most mating occurs in the male's territory.

The gestation period of female musk deer is usually 170-210 days, and the peak birth period is from May to July each year. When giving birth, females usually leave their usual activity area alone and choose to give birth in open areas. Each litter has 2-3 cubs, and as many as 8 cubs, which is more than any other type of deer. However, in a survey of zoos, it was found that there were usually only 2 offspring per litter, and occasionally 3. The average birth of a 1-year-old musk deer is 2.17 cubs, and the average birth of an adult musk deer is 2.73 cubs. After the female musk deer gives birth to their young in the wild, they will take them to areas with dense vegetation and hide them. The young will remain hidden for the first few weeks and will only appear when the mother comes to breastfeed. The young can stand up more than 10 minutes after birth, weighing about 870 grams, with soft fetal hair, gray-brown body, and light brown spots. After one month, the fetal hair will be shed and the summer hair will grow.

Habitat changes and overhunting are the main reasons for the decline in the number of musk deer, and even their extinction in some areas. The population density along rivers and lakes is increasing, and it is also the main battlefield for the development of industrial and agricultural production. Most of the wetlands that were originally full of tall grass and reeds have been reclaimed as farmland; the remaining reeds were all cut in winter, destroying the habitat and hiding places of musk deer. In addition, farmers hunted them excessively for meat, so their main habitats are on plains, river banks, beaches or low hills and forest edges, making them easy to be hunted and killed.

In the distribution area of musk deer, there are Yancheng National Nature Reserve, Jiangsu Dafeng Elk National Nature Reserve, Anhui Huangfushan Nature Reserve, Jiangxi Poyang Lake Nature Reserve, etc. However, even in the reserves, they are not truly protected because of their high reproductive capacity. As long as the environment is not destroyed, there is no danger of extinction. For example, there is sufficient room for maneuver between the scattered islands in Zhoushan and the grass beaches in Poyang Lake, and they can swim for several kilometers between the islands to escape the pursuit of hunters.

Listed in the "Red List of Threatened Species of the World Conservation Union" (IUCN) 2014 ver3.1-Vulnerable (VU).

Listed in the second level of the "List of National Key Protected Wildlife in China".

Protect wildlife and eliminate game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!