Altai Maral
| Altai Maral | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Altai Maral ( Cervus canadensis sibiricus ) |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Cervus canadensis sibiricus | ||||||||||||
| Severtsov , 1872 |
The Altai Maral ( Cervus canadensis sibiricus ) is a subspecies of the elk from the deer family (Cervidae). It is very similar to the American and other Northeast Asian elk, such as the Tianshan elk ( Cervus canadensis songaricus ), all of which may be assigned to a single subspecies ( Cervus canadiensis canadiensis ).
Other Asian deer that are attributed to the elk, but genetically different from Altai Maralen and American elk are the South Asian elk and Isubrahirsche ( Cervus canadensis xanthopygus ).
Because of the name it is easy to confuse with the Caucasus maral ( Cervus elaphus maral ) from Asia Minor . In contrast, this is a breed of red deer . The border between elk and common red deer - which used to be grouped into one species but are now considered to be two separate species - is in Central Asia south of the Tianshan Mountains and the Gobi . The elk live northeast of this line.
distribution
.jpg)
The Altai Maral, also known as the Siberian Wapiti, inhabits the Altai and Sajan Mountains , northwestern Mongolia and the areas west of Lake Baikal . In the southwest it is replaced by the very similar Tianshan elk from the Tianshan and Alatau regions. Occasionally, Altai Maral and Tianshan elk are combined into a single subspecies ( Cervus canadensis songaricus ). In the east joins the distribution area of the smaller Isubra deer , which lives in the Amur region , eastern Mongolia, North Korea and northern China. The number of Altai Marals in Russia and Mongolia is estimated at around 300,000 animals.
features
Altai Marale and Tianshan elk look similar to the American elk and are not inferior to them in terms of body size. The shoulder height of adult males is up to 155 cm, the body weight up to 300 kg. The cows are much smaller. The calves are larger than those of other Old World red deer breeds and weigh around 11 to 22 kg in the first week after birth. In summer, both sexes are quite similar in color and are monochrome cinnamon brown. In winter the bulls are greyish brownish-yellow on the sides, and darker cinnamon-brown on the neck, belly and shoulders. The females are more uniformly gray-brown in color during the cold season. The large mirror (light fur color on the rear part) varies in color from dull rust to hay-yellow and extends to the croup . The antlers are very large, crownless and end in six to seven ends. At the first branching point, the main rod bends sharply backwards. The head and mouth of this breed are quite wide. The rutting call corresponds to the high scream of American elk and not to the roar of European red deer.
literature
- VG Heptner: Mammals of the Soviet Union Vol. I Ungulates . Leiden, New York 1989, ISBN 90-04-08874-1 .
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World. 2 volumes. 6th edition. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore MD et al. 1999, ISBN 0-8018-5789-9 .
- H. Lingen: Large Lexicon of Animals. Lingen Verlag, Cologne 1989, OCLC 78379223 .
- Granitz hunting lodge (ed.): The deer of the world. Parey Buchverlag, Blackwell Wissenschafts-Verlag, Berlin / Vienna 1998, ISBN 3-8263-8514-4 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Christian J. Ludt, Wolf Schroeder, Oswald Rottmann, Ralph Kuehn: Mitochondrial DNA phylogeography of red deer (Cervus elaphus) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . tape 31 , 2004, p. 1064-1083 , doi : 10.1016 / j.ympev.2003.10.003 .
