Water deer
| Water deer | ||||||||||||
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Water deer |
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| Systematics | ||||||||||||
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| Scientific name of the genus | ||||||||||||
| Hydropotes | ||||||||||||
| Swinhoe , 1870 | ||||||||||||
| Scientific name of the species | ||||||||||||
| Hydropotes inermis | ||||||||||||
| Swinhoe , 1870 |
The water deer ( Hydropotes inermis ) is a species of deer that is widespread in East Asia . Despite its name, it has less in common with a deer than with a musk deer , but it is still more closely related to the former.
features
With a head-trunk length between 77.5 and 100 centimeters, a body height between 45 and 55 centimeters and a weight of 11 to 14 kilograms, water deer are very petite deer. They are one of the very few species of deer in which the males do not develop antlers . In the male, however , as in the musk deer , the upper canine teeth are elongated into tusks, which can be up to 6.4 centimeters long and clearly protrude from the mouth. In females, the canines are also elongated, but they do not protrude from the mouth in these. The fur of the water deer is thick and rough. It is yellow-brown in color, only the chin and throat are set off in a whitish shade. Deer have two scent glands in the groin area. In contrast to many other deer species, the tarsal and metatarsal organs are missing.
As a species that lives near water, deer are good swimmers. Fleeing deer often seek the water, they are also able to cross larger bodies of water and therefore colonize islands in larger fresh waters. Like the European deer , the water deer is more likely to be attributed to the hatcher type. It is physically incapable of fleeing long distances and usually takes cover with a few jumps when fleeing. The startling sound of the water deer is a harsh bark.
distribution and habitat
The distribution area includes the lower part of the Yangtze River Basin in east-central China and the Korean Peninsula . The Korean water deer is separated from the Chinese water deer as a subspecies Hydropotes inermis argyropus . Since it occurs almost exclusively in the hard-to-reach North Korea today , almost nothing is known about this subspecies. The habitat is swamps and banks of rivers and lakes, where the deer hide in tall reeds and other bank vegetation.
Way of life
Deer are solitary animals. Sometimes bucks tolerate the company of a female, but are always aggressive towards other members of their sex. They mark their territory with the secretions of the scent glands and with faeces. In battle, the animals inflict severe wounds with their canine teeth. They are not facing each other head-on, as is the case with red or fallow deer, for example , but shoulder to shoulder on the side. The fighting ends when one of the animals presses its head and neck to the ground as a gesture of humility . The loser then flees the territory.
After a gestation period of 200 days, the female gives birth to two young. Earlier reports that a litter contains up to eight young have been found to be inaccurate. Newborns weigh an average of one kilogram, the fur of the fawns has white spots and vertical stripes. They become sexually mature very quickly. Males can reproduce at six months of age and females are ready to conceive at eight months. Life expectancy in the wild is unknown. Deer held in captivity could live to be 13 years and 11 months.
The diet consists of grasses and aquatic plants, especially reeds. Sometimes deer go to and eat grain and vegetable fields at night, which is why they are considered pests in China.
Systematics
The water deer is a species of the genus Hydropotes and its only member. It belongs to the deer family (Cervidae). The systematic position of the water deer has long been controversial; it often formed its own subfamily Hydropotinae with a very basal position within the deer. Molecular genetic studies showed a close relationship with the deer ( Capreolus ), together they now form the tribe Capreolini .
Others
Introduction to Europe
Deer were introduced by the Duke of Bedford in 1929 together with the Chinese muntjac on his estate Woburn Abbey and have spread from there. Today they can be found in marshes and river plains in the Norfolk Broads ( Hickling Broad Nature Reserve), Bedfordshire and Cambridgeshire . Their number is estimated at 1500, which is about 10% of the world's population. Another feral population lives in the Haute-Vienne department in France .
Use in folk medicine
In traditional Chinese medicine , the female's colostrum is used, which is why the animals are pursued and hunted. The population is now estimated at 10,000 in China; the IUCN classifies the species as "endangered". Nothing is known about the population of the Korean water deer. In addition, the meat of the water deer is a basic ingredient of the traditional "eight treasures" (ba zhen) of ancient Chinese cuisine . Slowly steamed water rotisserie meat is considered a classic delicacy - but today it is rarely found on the Chinese dining table.
literature
- Leonard Lee Rue III: The Encyclopedia of Deer . Voyageur Press, Stillwater 2003, ISBN 0-89658-590-5
Web links
- Hydropotes inermis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Deer Specialist Group, 1996. Retrieved on 11 May, 2006.
Single receipts
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ↑ Rue, p. 32
- ^ George Gaylord Simpson: The Principles of Classification and a Classification of Mammals. Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History 85, 1945, pp. 1–350 (pp. 270–272)
- ^ Colin Peter Groves: A note on the systematic position of the Muntjac (Artiodactyla, Cervidae). Journal for Mammalian Science 39, 1974, pp. 369-372
- ↑ MV Kuznetsova, MV Kholodova and AA Danilkin: Molecular Phylogeny of Deer (Cervidae: Artiodactyla). Russian Journal of Genetics 41 (7), 2005, pp. 742-749
- ↑ Clément Gilbert, Anne Ropiquet and Alexandre Hassanin: Mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies of Cervidae (Mammalia, Ruminantia): Systematics, morphology, and biogeography. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40, 2006, pp 101-117