North Indian muntjac
| North Indian muntjac | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
_(7109814545).jpg)
Male North Indian Muntjac in Khao Yai National Park , Thailand |
||||||||||||
| Systematics | ||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
| Scientific name | ||||||||||||
| Muntiacus vaginalis | ||||||||||||
| ( Boddaert , 1785) |
The North Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus vaginalis ) is a species of deer from the genus of muntjacs . It occurs in South and Southeast Asia , where it inhabits a variety of forest landscapes. The animals live solitary in fixed action spaces and eat herbivorous leaves and fruits, and in spring also young grasses. As a rule, females give birth to a young. A typical characteristic of the North Indian muntjak is the reddish colored fur. It shares this characteristic with the Indian muntjac , which is why both forms are sometimes combined into one species. The scientific introduction of the North Indian Muntjak took place in 1785. The population is not considered endangered.
features
.jpg)
The North Indian Muntjak is outwardly similar to the Indian Muntjak ( Muntiacus muntjak ). Compared to the other reddish colored muntjaks of the South and Southeast Asian mainland, the central Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus aureus ) and the Malabar muntjac ( Muntiacus malabaricus ), it is the largest representative. He has a dark reddish fur on the back, which brightens towards the sides. The limbs are dark brown, also lighter on the inside. A white stripe appears above the hooves . The neck is grayish in color, the forehead and back of the head are yellowish brown, while the rest of the face area again appears grayish. The ears have a reddish hue on the back base, the rest is dark brown. The antlers measure between 8 and 12 cm in length. They sit on relatively long rose bushes that are roughly the size of the stems. The skull length is around 20 cm.
distribution
The North Indian Muntjac comes mainly in the northern and eastern part of India , in Nepal and Bhutan and to the east over a larger part of Indochina with Myanmar , Thailand including individual areas of the Malay Peninsula , Laos , Cambodia and Vietnam with the exception of the north to the southernmost part of the southern China 's Yunnan Province . The exact southern limit of distribution on the Malay Peninsula is still unclear. In the central and western part of India and to the east as far as the Chindwin area of Myanmar, the North Indian muntjac is being replaced by the central Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus aureus ). In contrast, the Malabar muntjac ( Muntiacus malabaricus ) is native to Sri Lanka and southwestern India , while the northern Vietnam, the Chinese island of Hainan and the northern part of Yunnan are inhabited by the black-footed muntjac ( Muntiacus nigripes ). In a broader perspective, the North Indian muntjac corresponds to the only reddish-colored muntjac of the South and Southeast Asian mainland, its distribution area would then take up the entire described area. The Indian muntjak ( Muntiacus muntjak ) is common to the south on the southern part of the Malay Peninsula and the Sunda Islands .
Inhabited habitats encompass a wide variety of forests and scrubland, including flat plains and rugged mountains, dense vegetated and open areas, evergreen and deciduous forests, and primary and secondary forests . The North Indian muntjac can also be found in some cases in grassland and arable land near forested habitats. As a rule, the altitude ranges from 1000 to 1500 m above sea level, in the Himalayas , altitudes of up to 3500 m are also possible.
Way of life
Territorial behavior
The North Indian muntjac lives solitary, reports of small groups can be traced back to mating animals, mother / young animal associations or to a temporary accidental gathering of individuals at high quality food sources. The individuals seem to be strongly tied to a certain space of action . In the Bardia National Park in Nepal , male animals use areas of 45 to 95 ha with an average of 70 ha, data for female animals are 35 to 82 ha, on average 59 ha. The size of the areas varies only slightly over the year. Some of the boundaries overlap clearly regardless of gender. Male animals spend a greater amount of time in their daily budget applying scent stamps, and they also appear to be aggressive towards other members of their sex to a certain extent. But there is no extremely designated territoriality. The North Indian muntjac can be active during the day as well as at night, with frequent activities taking place at dusk. To rest or to ruminate, the animals retreat to areas with dense vegetation. Observations in the Khao-Yai National Park in Thailand showed that the North Indian muntjak mainly prefers slopes facing west. The larger sambar , which also occurs here and lives in small groups, on the other hand, occupies east-facing slopes, so that both species may avoid competition . Predators are the leopard , the tiger and the red dog .
nutrition
The diet of the North Indian muntjac is based on fruits , buds , small seeds , twigs , tender leaves and young grass . According to investigations in the Nagarjun forest near Kathmandu in Nepal, the animals eat a total of 22 different plant species, with a soft diet dominating. Only in spring does the proportion of hard grasses rise to around 55%, where Imperata grasses are of particular importance. The North Indian muntjac obtains leaf and fruit food from stinging winds , among other things , but also from representatives of Flemingia , Prunus and Arundinaria . In the rainy season, lichens also play a bigger role. Due to its diet, the North Indian muntjak is an important distributor of plant seeds. Among other things, the genus Choerospondia from the sumac family benefits from this . Occasionally the animals eat feces from other mammals, such as the Asian elephant , which can contain half-digested fruits from Dillenia plants.
Reproduction
The North Indian muntjac appears to be able to reproduce year-round , but mating activities are more limited in time for some populations , especially in areas with a more seasonal climate. The rutting cycle lasts about 18 days and is repeated several times a year. After a gestation period of around 210 days, a young is born. Females are ready to receive again after the birth of their offspring, the interval between two births is around eight months. The boy is weaned after around 70 days and sexual maturity is reached at eight to ten months.
Systematics
|
Internal systematics of the Muntjak deer according to Zurano et al. 2019
|
The north Indian Muntjak is a kind from the genus of the barking ( Muntiacus ) within the family of deer (Cervidae). The Muntjaks be within the deer to the subfamily of Cervinae and tribes of muntiacini ordered (Muntiacini), in the latter is additionally the tufted deer ( Elaphodus ). The Muntjak deer in turn are the sister taxon to the real deer (Cervini). Typical characteristics of the muntjaks can be found in the simply built antlers and the canine teeth, which are mostly enlarged in males. All known representatives inhabit forest landscapes. Both the exact relationship between the various muntjac representatives and the number of species have not yet been fully clarified. A revision of the ungulates from 2011 by Colin P. Groves and Peter Grubb highlights the North Indian muntjac as a form of the reddish-colored muntjac and assigns it to the Muntjacus muntjak group. In addition to the species that gives it its name, the Indian muntjak ( Muntiacus muntjak ), this also includes the central Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus aureus ), the Malabar muntjac ( Muntiacus malabaricus ) and the black-footed muntjak ( Muntiacus nigripes ). The group is supported by the Muntiacus reevesi and the Muntiacus crinifrons group as well as a largely unnamed group of dwarfish muntjaks from the Southeast Asian mainland (sometimes also referred to as the Muntiacus rooseveltorum group). The distinction was made largely on an anatomical basis, but with the inclusion of individual genetic data.
The species status of the North Indian muntjak is assessed very differently. The first scientific description was made by Pieter Boddaert in 1785 under the name Cervus vaginalis . In doing so, he separated the North Indian muntjac from the Indian muntjac, which Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann had introduced five years earlier. Boddaert gave the type region of the species as India. As a basis for his description, he referred to the detailed treatises on the "Indian deer" ( le chevreuil des Indés ) in Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon's comprehensive work Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière. from 1782. Especially in the course of the 20th century, the North Indian muntjac, together with the other reddish-colored mainland forms, was considered a subspecies of the Indian muntjac. In German, this all-encompassing species then bore the trivial name “Muntjak”. Within the "Muntjak" there were sometimes up to a dozen subspecies.
.png)
From several cytogenetic studies since the 1970s, the knowledge grew that the muntjacs are extremely diverse in the nature of their chromosome set , whose diploid number of 2n = 6/7 in the "muntjak" - the lowest value found in a mammal - over 2n = 12 / 13/14 for the Tenasserim muntjac ( Muntiacus feae ) up to 2n = 46 for the Chinese muntjak ( Muntiacus reevesi ). The mainland red muntjaks differed from those of the Sunda Islands in terms of their chromosome number, as the latter have a set of 2n = 8/9 compared to 2n = 6/7 in the former. Colin P. Groves took this as an opportunity in 2003 to separate the continental from the island-dwelling animals at the species level and thus to recognize the North Indian muntjac as distinct from the Indian muntjac. Groves assigned three subspecies to the North Indian muntjac: M. v. vaginalis as a nominate form with a distribution area from the northern part of the Indian subcontinent to western Myanmar , M. v. aureus from the central Indian area of the Deccan and M. v. malabaricus from Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats (a fourth subspecies with M. v. curvostylis from the rest of the Southeast Asian mainland and from southwest China; Groves only treated the animals of South Asia in 2003). Groves suspected, however, a third, independent species, which is externally characterized by black legs and occurs on the island of Hainan , in southwest China and in northern Vietnam. The shape is marked with M. v. nigripes partly also regarded as a subspecies of the North Indian muntjac. The division of the red muntjacs into two types was partially taken over by other authors, among others also by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN), other scientists stayed with the old breakdown into a single type. The revision of the ungulates by In 2011, Groves and Grubb again elevated the representatives of South Asia, previously postulated as subspecies, to species status, namely the Central Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus aureus ) and the Malabar muntjac ( Muntiacus malabaricus ), the two authors also pointed out the black-footed muntjac ( Muntiacus) nigripes ). Accordingly, two subspecies remained in the north Indian muntjac: M. v. vaginalis and M. v. curvostylis .
Depending on the recognition of the individual species, the following subspecies can be specified for the North Indian muntjak:
- Structure according to Groves 2003:
- M. v. aureus ( Hamilton Smith , 1827); central and western part of the Indian subcontinent and western Myanmar
- M. v. curvostylis ( Gray , 1872); Indochina from Myanmar to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia to southern and central Vietnam and southwestern China
- M. v. malabaricus Lydekker , 1915; Sri Lanka and the southern part of the Indian subcontinent (Western Ghats)
- M. v. nigripes Allen , 1930; Hainan , southwestern China and northern Vietnam
- M. v. vaginalis ( Boddaert , 1785); northern and eastern part of the Indian subcontinent to western Myanmar
- Structure according to Groves and Grubb 2011:
- M. v. curvostylis ( Gray , 1872); Indochina from Myanmar to Thailand, Laos, Cambodia to southern and central Vietnam and southwestern China
- M. v. vaginalis ( Boddaert , 1785); northern and eastern part of the Indian subcontinent to western Myanmar
Other subspecies included within the North Indian muntjac were M. v. annamensis , named by Cecil Boden Kloss in 1928 for animals from southern Vietnam, and M. v. menglalis and M. v. yunnanensis for representatives from Yunnan, both subspecies were introduced in 1988. While M. v. annamensis and M. v. menglalis from Groves and Grubb 2011 to M. v. curvostylis were transferred, they divided M. v. yunnanensis contributes to the black-footed muntjac.
|
Classification of the reddish muntjacs according to Martins et al. 2017 based on genetic data
|
Molecular genetic studies from 2017 show that a total of three monophyletic lines can be reconstructed within the red-colored muntjaks of South and Southeast Asia . One clade highlights the animals from Sri Lanka and the Western Ghats, a second includes those from mainland South and Southeast Asia, and a third includes those from the Malay Peninsula and the Sunda Islands. Individual subgroups can still be distinguished within the three lines, for example from northern India or from southern China and northern Vietnam. The boundaries between the three main lines lie on the one hand on the Isthmus of Kra and on the other hand on the central Indian dry region, both of which are known as biogeographical barriers. The splitting of the three groups occurs in the Lower Pleistocene about 1.5 to 1.1 million years ago. First the Sri Lanka / West Ghat line formed. It is possible that the formation process was controlled by the climatic fluctuations during the Pleistocene. The study's authors did not decide whether the three clades should be classified as subspecies or species, as further genetic studies are necessary for a higher resolution.
Threat and protection
The IUCN classifies the North Indian muntjac in the category “not endangered” ( least concern ). The species is legally and illegally hunted in most of its range and is probably one of the most widely used and sought-after types of game meat in South and Southeast Asia. China appears to be the main consumer and producer of North Indian muntjac products. There is an intensive trade from the neighboring Southeast Asian countries to China, which includes meat, hides, antlers and medicines. The species occurs in numerous protected areas.
literature
- Colin Peter Groves: Taxonomy of ungulates of the Indian subcontinent. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 100 (2-3), 2003, pp. 341–361 ( [8] )
Individual evidence
- ^ A b c d Colin Peter Groves: Taxonomy of ungulates of the Indian subcontinent. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 100 (2-3), 2003, pp. 341–361 ( [1] )
- ↑ a b c d e f Colin Groves and Peter Grubb: Ungulate Taxonomy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 1-317 (pp. 71-107)
- ↑ a b c d e f g R. J. Timmins, R. Steinmetz, N. Samba Kumar, Md. Anwarul Islam and H. Sagar Baral: Muntiacus vaginalis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016. e.T136551A22165292 ( [2] ); last accessed on December 31, 2019
- ↑ a b c d S. Mattioli: Family Cervidae (Deer). In: Don E. Wilson, Russell A. Mittermeier (eds.): Handbook of the Mammals of the World. Volume 2: Hooved Mammals. Lynx Edicions, Barcelona 2011, ISBN 978-84-96553-77-4 , pp. 350–443 (pp. 409–412)
- ↑ Morten Odden and Per Wegge: Predicting spacing behavior and mating systems of solitary cervids: A study of hog deer and Indian muntjac. Zoology 110, 2007, pp. 261-270
- ↑ Jedediah F. Brodie and Warren Y. Brockelman: Bed site selection of red muntjac (Muntiacus muntjak) and sambar (Rusa unicolor) in a tropical seasonal forest. Ecological Research 24, 2009, pp. 1251-125, doi: 10.1007 / s11284-009-0610-9
- ↑ Ajaya Nagarkoti and Tej B. Thapa: Food habits of barking deer (Muntiacus muntjac) in the middle hills of Nepal. Hystrix, Italian Journal of Mammalogy 18 (1), 2007, pp. 77-82
- ↑ Jin Chen, X.‐B. Deng, Z.‐L. Bai, Qing Yang, G.‐Q. Chen, Yong Liu and Z.‐Q. Li: Fruit Characteristics and Muntiacus muntijak vaginalis (Muntjac) Visits to Individual Plants of Choerospondias axillaries. Biotropica 33 (4), 2001, pp. 718-722
- ↑ Sachin P. Ranade and Vibhu Prakash: Coprophagy by Barking Deer Muntiacus vaginalis (Mammalia: Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) in Buxa Tiger Reserve, West Bengal, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa 7 (11), 2015, pp. 7825-7826
- ↑ Juan P. Zurano, Felipe M. Magalhães, Ana E. Asato, Gabriel Silva, Claudio J. Bidau, Daniel O. Mesquita and Gabriel C. Costa: Cetartiodactyla: Updating a time-calibrated molecular phylogeny. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 133, 2019, pp. 256-262, doi: 10.1016 / j.ympev.2018.12.015
- ↑ Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann: Geographical history of humans, and the generally common four-footed animals. Second volume. Contains a complete list of all known quadrupeds. Leipzig, 1780, pp. 1–276 (p. 131) ( [3] )
- ↑ Pieter Boddaert: Elenchus animalium, volume 1: Sistens quadrupedia huc usque nota, erorumque varietates. Rotterdam, 1785, pp. 1–174 (p. 136) ( [4] )
- ↑ Georges-Louis Leclerc de Buffon: Histoire naturelle, générale et particulière. Supplément, Tome Sixième. Paris, 1782, pp. 195–200 and plate 26 ( [5] )
- ^ Richard Lydekker: Catalog of the ungulate mammals in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume 4. , 1915, pp. 1–438 (p. 21) ( [6] )
- ↑ Don E. Wilson and DeeAnn M. Reeder (eds.): Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2005 ( [7] )
- ↑ Doris H. Wurster and Kurt Benirschke: Indian Momtjac, Muntiacus muntiak: A Deer with a Low Diploid Chromosome Numbe. Science 168 (3937), 1970, pp. 1364-1366
- ↑ Alongkod Tanomtong, Arunrat Chaveerach, Gittichai Phanjun, Wiwat Kaensa and Sumpars Khunsook: New Records of chromosomal features in Indian muntjacs (Muntiacus muntjak) and Fea's muntjacs (M. feae) of Thailand. Cytologia 70, 2005, pp. 71-77
- ^ A b John MacKinnon: Order Artiodactyla. In: Andrew T. Smith, Yan Xie, Robert S. Hoffmann, Darrin Lunde, John MacKinnon, Don E. Wilson and W. Chris Wozencraft (Eds.): A Guide to the Mammals of China. Princeton University Press, 2008, pp. 451-481
- ↑ a b Renata F. Martins, Jörns Fickel, Minh Le, Thanh van Nguyen, Ha M. Nguyen, Robert Timmins, Han Ming Gan, Jeffrine J. Rovie-Ryan, Dorina Lenz, Daniel W. Förster and Andreas Wilting: Phylogeography of red muntjacs reveals three distinct mitochondrial lineages. BMC Evolutionary Biology 17, 2017, p 34 doi: 10.1186 / s12862-017-0888-0
Web links
- Muntiacus vaginalis in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2016 Posted by: Timmins, RJ, Mason, R., Samba Kumar, N., Anwarul Islam, Md Sagar Baral, H., 2015. Retrieved on December 29 of 2019. .