Rucervus eldii

Eld's deer, whose Latin name is Cervus eldii, is a medium-sized deer with three subspecies. It is similar in appearance to sika deer, but smaller in size, with fewer spots, and a more slender neck, body and limbs, making it look particularly agile.

Eld's deer like to live in groups, but males with long horns mostly act alone. Usually you can see pairs or groups of 3-5 together, gathering and dispersing on grassy slopes and wet fields beside streams or in valleys, as well as in burned areas, etc., mainly females and cubs. During the mating period, the clustering phenomenon is more obvious, with a maximum of about 12. Foraging activities are mostly in the morning and evening, especially after heavy rain. It is relatively drought-resistant and heat-resistant. Although it likes to forage near grasslands with water, it has not been found to take baths or mud baths. It is said that when there were many Eld's deer in the past, they often foraged during the day, and even approached or mixed with grazing livestock. Later, due to the influence of human activities, they were forced to move in the morning and at night.

The main food of Eld's deer is green grass and young branches and leaves, such as bamboo grass, Dinggui grass, chicken, magpie kidney, etc. It also eats crops such as citron leaves, young rice seedlings, sugarcane seedlings, and especially likes to eat water plants growing by the water or in swamps. In addition, it often licks saline-alkali soil to replenish the minerals and salts needed by the body.

Eld's deer has very sharp vision and hearing, and runs very fast, especially good at jumping. When foraging, it is also very alert. After eating two or three mouthfuls, it raises its head and looks around, listening to the movement in the wilderness. After eating hurriedly, it will hide. Once it finds an enemy, it will immediately run away. Even if there are trees and bushes several meters high or rivers several meters wide, it can jump over them. Therefore, there are many legends about it "flying". Because the production areas of Eld's deer are mostly distributed with sambar deer, there is also a saying that sambar deer like to bite the antlers of Eld's deer, so these two deer never live together. In fact, the habitat of sambar deer is mainly in the foothills with higher altitudes, while the activity area of Eld's deer is different.

Eld's deer is polygamous. Females can continue to reproduce from the age of 2 to 10. The estrus period of Eld's deer is winter and early spring every year, and the breeding period is from February to May every year. The gestation period is 225-342 days, and there is one litter per year, with 1-2 young Eld's deer per litter. Young Eld's deer are weaned 4-6 months after birth and become sexually mature at the age of 2. Young deer are mainly fed by female deer. Although male deer live in groups, they rarely participate. Because the estrus period of Eld's deer has entered the rainy season, trees sprout, wild grass grows strong, and food is very abundant, making their bodies gradually fatter. Male animals fight fiercely for mates, often leaving them covered with bruises. The winner will mate with the female animal and stay with her until the end of the estrus period, so as to leave stronger offspring. In late May, after competing for mates and mating, male animals will gradually leave the group and live alone. Then in June and July, they will shed their dull old antlers and begin to grow new velvet-like soft skin from the antler base. The antlers are most abundant around October. After that, the skin breaks and falls off. The antlers gradually keratinize and present a dark brown luster. The complex grooves on the surface of the antlers are traces of blood vessels during the antler period. In the summer of the following year, the old antlers fall off again, and this cycle repeats.

Decades ago, Eld's deer were distributed in the low hills and plains of Dongfang, Changjiang, Baisha, Yaxian, Ledong, Danxian, Qiongzhong, Tunchang and other counties on Hainan Island. Due to the rapid destruction of the habitat and the intensity of hunting by people, the distribution of Eld's deer has gradually shrunk from large areas to two points: one is Bangxi in Baisha, and the other is Datian in Dongfang, with a total of only 50 to 60 heads. In 1976, Guangdong Province, China established two provincial nature reserves, Datian and Bangxi, and set up two protection stations to protect Eld's deer. Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar have also established protected areas to protect the Eld's Deer; Thailand began to try artificial breeding due to late protection measures; India has kept the Eld's Deer in captivity in the hope of restoring the population.

Listed in Appendix I of the CITES Convention

Listed in the 2008 Red List of Endangered Species of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) ver 3.1 - Endangered (EN)

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

Protect wild animals and stop eating game.

Maintaining ecological balance is everyone's responsibility!

Mainly distributed in Cambodia, India, Laos, Myanmar, and China.
In China, it is mainly distributed in Dongfang and Baisha in the southwest of Hainan Island.
Possibly extinct: Thailand, Vietnam
Inhabits low hills and plains below 200 meters above sea level, and likes to gather in small river valleys.

The appearance is similar to that of sika deer, but the body is smaller, with fewer spots, and the neck, body and limbs are more slender, which makes it look particularly agile.
Male deer have horns, and the first brow fork extends forward and sideways from the base, almost forming a curved bow shape with the main trunk. The spots of adult deer in winter are not obvious, and the body is narrow and long, the neck and limbs are also relatively slender, the dorsal mane is not obvious, the main hoof is narrow and pointed, and the side hoof is small. The female beast has no horns on its head, and the shape of the horns on the male beast's head is very special. There is a larger brow fork that grows forward and then bends slightly upward, while the main trunk first goes backward, then bends upward, and extends forward. The main trunk is not forked below, and it seems that there is no secondary fork or trident. In fact, the fork is located at a higher position and grows to the upper e