PèRE DAVID'S DEER

'Père David's Deer' (''Elaphurus davidianus'',) '''Milu''' in Chinese (麋鹿), is a species of deer known only in captivity. It prefers marshland, and is believed to be native to the subtropics. It grazes on a mixture of grass and water plants.

Contents

Characteristics

Names

Population

References

External links

Characteristics

Adults weigh 150-200 kg (330-440 pounds). They have a nine-month gestation period, and one or two fawns are born at a time. They reach maturity at about 14 months, and have been known to reach the age of 23 years.
Père David's Deer has a long tail, wide hooves, and branched antlers. Adults have summer coats that are bright red with a dark dorsal stripe, and dark gray winter coats. The fawns are spotted.

Names

Besides the Chinese official name Milu (麋鹿), a Chinese nickname name (四不象, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), and in Japanese: 四不像 (shifuzou): translates as "four unlikes," because the animal has been described as having "the hoofs of a cow but not a cow, the head of a horse but not a horse, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey."^[1] Several other sources claim "sibuxiang" to have different meanings: "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse"^[2] ; "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer"^[3]; "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer"^[4]; "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"^[5]. By this name, this undomesticated animal entered Chinese mythology as the mount of Jiang Ziya in the Ming novel Fengshen Yanyi, or "Investiture of the Gods."

Population

These animals were first made known to Western science in the 19th century, by Father Armand David, a French missionary working in China. At the time, the only surviving herd was in a preserve belonging to the Chinese emperor. The last herd of Père David's Deer that remained in China were eaten by Western and Japanese troops that were present at the time of the Boxer Rebellion.
After Father David publicized their existence, a few animals were given (or stolen?) to European countries, and bred there. After the remaining population in China died out, the remaining deer in Europe were gathered to England to be bred for the preservation of the species. The current population stems from this herd.
These deer are now found in zoos around the world, and two herds of Père David's Deer were reintroduced to Nan Haizi Milu Park, Beijing, and Dafeng Reserve, Jiangsu Province, China in the late 1980s. When they were last assessed for the IUCN Red List (1996), they are classified as "critically endangered" in the wild, under criteria ''D'': "[wild] population estimated to number less than 50 mature individuals" ^[6]. The animals do not appear to have suffered from a genetic bottleneck because of small population size, apparently because their population had been much reduced for a long time already which eliminated harmful recessive alleles.

References

1. http://dictionary.goo.ne.jp, http://www.wildlife-plant.gov.cn/2-hydt/jiangsu1.htm , http://www.tato.com.cn/park/zoo/yilan1.htm
2. Taiwanese gov't on their zoo FAQ page, http://www.zoo.gov.tw/web5d1.htm
3. http://www.aoba.sakura.ne.jp/~momoncyo/zoo/animal_P_D_deer.htm
4. http://www2.odn.ne.jp/~cbf13020/kumamoto.html page, and also the "sika" page: http://www.ultimateungulate.com/perdavdeer.html
5. http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200001/13/eng20000113R110.html
6. [1]


★ Listed as Critically Endangered (CR D v2.3)

★ Robert Twigger, ''The Extinction Club'' (William Morrow, 2001). ISBN-10: 0688175392 This is an account of the author's research into the Milu.

External links

★ ARKive - images and movies of the Pere David’s deer ''(Elaphurus davidianus)''