Text: Jian Li
Since ancient times, deer have been regarded as auspicious in the traditional culture of our country, and most of them have a straight posture, slender limbs, short tails and antlers like dead branches, running gracefully and with a light gait. There are a total of 55 species of deer in the world, of which nearly half of the species are distributed in China, even if the land area is large such as Russia, Canada, the United States and other countries, the number of deer species distributed in the territory is far less than that of China. On the diversity of deer, China ranks first in the world!
sika deer
Sika deer were once widely distributed in China, and due to indiscriminate fishing, only a small number is left in Jiangsu and other places. After years of hard work, many places in our country have successfully realized the wilderness
When it comes to deer, for most people, the first image that comes to mind is probably the sika deer, because this deer is basically displayed in zoos in China. Sika deer are only medium in size among deer, and their maroon body hair is covered with irregular vertical white spots from the back to the sides of the body, and the shape of this white spot is like a plum blossom, which looks elegant and charming.
In the winter to watch the sika deer, the coat color is not so beautiful, they will gradually fade the bright maroon "coat", and then change into a thick chestnut brown or gray-brown "coat" to meet the cold winter, not only that, the original eye-catching white spots will become cloudy or disappear.
The fully "ossified" antlers are the weapons that the bucks use to fight for power during the estrus period.
Admire sika deer, the most striking of which is a pair of huge antlers that stand on the head of a stag. There are forks on the antlers, and forks will grow on the forks, and some male antlers can be divided into up to 4 forks, which looks like a vibrant branch. In the spring, the top of the stag's head will gradually grow a pair of tender horns with fluff, and gently pressing on it with your hand will feel a little warm, this is because the appearance of the tender horn is wrapped in the skin with blood circulation, this new antler is often called "deer antler".
From September to October, the antlers will gradually harden, which is also the estrus period of the deer, and the temper of adult male deer will become extremely grumpy, looking for hard objects to grind the horns, grinding and grinding, and the white and sharp bone horns have become their highly lethal weapons. However, this sharp weapon is not equipped with the buck for life, and in February to March of the following year, the antlers will naturally fall off, and after the scalp under the horns heals, it will give birth to the newborn antler antlers again.
red deer
The red deer's cubs resemble sika deer
The deer park of Beijing Zoo is home to two deer that closely resemble the appearance of sika deer. Their body hair is also chestnut red, the black ridge on the back is particularly prominent, and the white plum spots on the body are also very beautiful. If you look closely, you will find that their body shape is really disproportionate to that of the sika deer - the thick long legs support the short body, the extremely short tail is not the same, and the most obvious is that there is a large light-colored buttock spot around the buttocks. Looking behind them again, two tall deer stood proudly. The two deer, which resemble sika deer, are the cubs of the red deer.
The red deer is a large deer, not only as strong as a horse, but also weighs almost twice as much as the sika deer, which can reach 200 to 250 kg. In addition to its body shape, the deer's horns are also large, and the antlers can not only have up to 10 forks, but also grow to 10 kg. After the first molting, the young deer will fade away the beautiful white spots and gradually change into plain "new clothes".
The body hair of adult red deer is mainly gray-brown or yellow-brown in winter, and in summer it will change to short russet hairs. The most obvious is the large earthy yellow rump spot on their buttocks, which is an important identification mark for red deer. When the deer are approached by predators, they will desperately pull their legs and run forward.
Red deer are distributed in northeast China and Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Sichuan, Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet and other regions. Red deer can adapt to grasslands, deserts, shrublands, forests and other habitats, often 3 to 5 live in groups, mainly on grass, young branches and leaves for food, but also in the low wetlands with more salinity, in order to supplement the required salt.
Living in Gansu and Sichuan in China is the Gansu red deer. It is the most obvious difference from the northeast red deer: the buttock spots of the northeast red deer are earth yellow, while the Gansu red deer is white, so the Gansu red deer also has the name of "white rump deer".
During this time, the deer's tail will be raised to show obvious rump spots as a warning to avoid losing their way in the process of escaping, as do other deer.
moose
The photo shows a Eurasian moose at the Munich Zoo in Germany. Yu Lianquan / Photo
Although the red deer is very large, there are still larger deer in the north of China, with a shoulder height of nearly 2 meters and a weight of 200 to 500 kilograms, which is the largest deer animal - moose. The moose is as tall as a camel, with its towering shoulders shaped like a hump, and its slender limbs roam the jungle, looking from the front from a distance, resembling a fierce "giant".
Not only are they large in size, but their horns are also very large, and the main trunk is different from the branches of the red deer, but like the shovel shape of a giant palm, and there are several sharp forks around them. The length of the antlers is more than 1 meter, and a pair of horns can weigh 30 to 40 kg!
Currently, moose have been divided into two species. Distributed in Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia are llamas, which are found in North America and Russia, while a small number of them are distributed in the northern part of Xinjiang in China, and mongolia, Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic and other countries have them.
In addition to their horns, moose also have a very peculiar appearance, their faces are very long, their swollen lips and nose are reminiscent of the appearance of camels, and there is a distinct "fleshy hanging" under the short and thick neck, which is a jaw sac formed by skin derivatives. In contrast to other deer, moose do not like to graze and prefer the young branches and leaves of woody plants. In the hot summer, dense forests and ponds can not be less for them. In order to replenish sufficient water, moose also need to feed their hunger with succulent aquatic plants and herbs. In winter, they forage for moss.
Some people may ask, such a huge moose, the appearance is also very strange, but why did not see it in the zoo? In fact, moose have been raised in zoos in Harbin, Qiqihar, Beijing, Jinan and other cities, but unfortunately they have not been able to form a population size. The predecessor of Qiqihar Longsha Zoological and Botanical Garden, Longsha Park, once had 8 moose deer, which was the last moose breeding population in China. After 50 years of experience, the researchers have successfully achieved the second generation of moose breeding, and the newborn young deer do not have white spots like sika deer on the side of the body, but are covered with a faint earthy yellow. Unfortunately, for various reasons, this population was ultimately not preserved.
reindeer
Reindeer are not easy to keep in zoos, they are extremely afraid of heat, and they must have a large dense forest for shade and cooling, otherwise
In Beijing Daxing Wildlife Park, there is another kind of deer that is distributed in the north of China in a small number, that is, reindeer. Reindeer have a pair of specially shaped horns - horns grow forward, and each branch is complex, up to 30 forks, and more peculiarly, both male and female deer have horns.
Reindeer belong to the deer around the Arctic, inhabiting boreal forests, shrublands, swamps, summer activities in small groups, winter and estrus often gather dozens to hundreds of large groups, mainly feeding on bryophytes. Only the Genhe area of Inner Mongolia in China has a small number of semi-free reindeer living.
Compared to other deer, reindeer have short ears and a slightly square nose shape, they do not have the towering shoulders of moose, and the curve from back to hip is straight. In winter, reindeer are covered with thick gray-brown hairs, especially on the throat, which are long and thick, like a warm white scarf.
In Western folklore, reindeer carry Santa Claus and cartloads of gifts to thousands of homes, bringing the most memorable holiday blessings to sleeping children. However, in reality, reindeer are domesticated animals by the Evenk people, a minority in northern China, and they are used as an important means of transportation, pulling sleighs, carrying heavy loads, and also providing deer milk, which is a rare and good helper for the locals.
roe deer
The roe deer is slightly smaller than the sika deer, and due to the shorter snout, the head looks triangular from the side. The tip of their black nose extends to the sides of their jaws and there are two black lines, like the sauce that has been forgotten to be wiped off at the corners of the mouth. Male roe deer have only 3 forks on their smaller horns, and they have no eye-catching spots on the side of their bodies, only faint brownish yellow body hair, and a snow-white buttock spot on the buttocks as a warning.
Roe deer are distributed in northeast China, north China and Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia, Shaanxi, Hubei, Sichuan, Tibet and other places, frequent morning and dusk activities, will form a small group of 3 to 5, there will be more than 10 groups. The roe deer is alert, has a relatively developed sense of hearing, vision, and smell, and feeds on the young branches and grass of shrubs.
Everyone says roe deer are "stupid roe deer", but in fact they are really not stupid. Roe deer are very adaptable to the environment, they can be seen in most areas of China from north to south, roe deer can survive in mixed forests, shrublands, plains and other habitats. Unlike other deer around the zoo that often beg for food, the roe deer raised at the Beijing Zoo never rush to tourists for food, as if they know that the food is unhealthy, they just chew on the healthy feed carefully prepared by the keepers.
sambar
When I approached the sambar deer with the staff, they were startled and erected their tails with black hairballs.
In the south of China, the deer garden of Guangzhou Zoo can see a deer with a thick body and the same size as a red deer, which is a sambar deer.
Sambar deer are distributed in Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi, Hainan, Taiwan and other places in China, mainly feeding on grass, leaves and young branches. Sambar deer have suborbital glands in the lower corners of their eyes, which are open when they are angry or excited.
Male sambar deer generally have only 3 forks in the horns, unlike red deer, their coat color is darker, chestnut brown or black brown, so the sambar deer is also called "black deer". However, the coat color of sambar deer varies by age, sex and region. The tail is an important identifying feature of sambar deer, their tail is not very long, but at the end there is a fluffy ball like a black brown hairball,
The name "sambar deer" is enough to show that they are very fond of water, in a secluded environment, the sambar will fall in the shallow pool and roll over the tired body, passers-by will mistakenly think that it is whose buffalo is rolling in the water, so in some places the sambar deer is also called "buffalo deer".
Po deer
In guangzhou zoo, there is also a rare rare deer, which is only distributed in Hainan Province in China, which is the slope deer.
The deer inhabit low-altitude shrublands of savannah and are active in small groups, feeding mainly on grass and leaves. Po deer were once widely distributed on China's Hainan Island, and due to excessive hunting, 90 percent of po deer disappeared into the fields where they once galloped, and after years of protection and publicity, the situation has improved.
The shape of the deer is similar to that of the sika deer, not the strong body of the sambar deer, and their slender body, slender neck, and slender limbs look flexible and elegant. The body hair of the deer is bright and reddish brown, and there are a row of faint white spots on each side of the body. To say that the most special thing about the slope deer is the pair of antlers on the head of the buck. Unlike other deer, the horns of the porcupine deer have a large, curved brow fork that echoes the curved trunk of the back and forms a curved bow-like shape. It is precisely because there are such special eyebrow forks on the horns of the deer, so they are also called "eyebrow fork deer" in foreign countries.
When I photographed the slope deer herd, the female deer put their ears together and watched my every move intently, and the whistled deer still chirped from time to time, and the sound reached my ears and made me more and more distressed. As a result, the "male host" in the group finally couldn't hold back, stepped forward and faced with an angle, which was the moment to prove manhood and majesty. The staff saw the situation and immediately took me away from the scene to prevent me from being injured.
hog deer
Not all of China's deer are tall, and there are also "short and fat", and the dolphin deer is one of them. The deer is slightly smaller than the roe deer, with inconspicuous white spots on the back and side of the body, and the horns of the stag are not long, and they are also 3 forks, like a miniature version of the antlers of the antlers. Their fat bodies match their slender limbs, they are simply a "short mound", and they look like a small wild boar when they walk into the grass and look down to feed, which is why the guinea deer has such a funny name.
In China, only the Nan rolling river national nature reserve in Cangyuan, Yunnan Province, has a very small distribution, is a precious endangered animal, the most important factor is the excessive reclamation of human beings caused by the loss of the most basic living conditions. Dolphin deer are also rare in domestic zoos, and Chengdu Zoo has the largest breeding population of dolphin deer in China.
Dolphin deer are typical tropical deer that inhabit swampy wetlands covered with reeds. The vigilant guinea deer prefer to come out at night to forage, specializing in the stems and leaves of reeds and aquatic weeds. During the day, they hide in dense reeds, and their stocky figures help them to be well concealed by the reeds and are not easily exposed.
China's deer are far more than these, deer in the ecological chain is a vital link, in a large number of hunting, deer are used as food, medicinal materials, leather products and a large number of trafficking, coupled with the sharp reduction of habitat, their number is getting smaller and smaller.
About the author
Animal photographer, animal science writer. Over the years, he has visited many zoos across the country to take photos of the increasingly rare native Chinese animals, just to keep their image data and promote the importance of protecting native animals to the public.