Elk (scientific name: Elaphurus davidianus): Also known as "four unlike", it is a rare animal in the world and belongs to the deer family. Because its head and face resemble a horse, its horns resemble a deer, its neck resembles a camel, and its tail resembles a donkey, it is named Four Different. The body length is 170-217 cm and the tail length is 60-75 cm. Males are 122–137 cm tall at the shoulders and females are 70–75 cm tall and slightly smaller than males. The average elk weighs 120-180 kg, adult male elk weighs up to 250 kg, and newborn calves weigh about 12 kg. The horns are longer and shed once a year in December. Female elk have no horns and are smaller. The male horns are forked like deer, the neck is long like a camel, the tail end has black hairs, and the elk horns are specially shaped and have no eyebrows. The head is large, the snout is narrow and long, the bare part of the nasal end is wide, the eyes are small, and the suborbital glands are prominent. The limbs are thick, the main hooves are wide and succulent, and there are well-developed hanging hooves, with loud bumps in the walking era.
The elk is an animal limited to the middle and late Quaternary period, confirmed from the more than 190 known elk fossil excavation sites, the historical elk distribution area west to the Fenhe River basin in Shanxi, north to Kangping in Liaoning, south to Yuyao in Zhejiang, east to the coastal plains and islands. By the Late Pleistocene, elk populations developed rapidly and reached their peak by the middle of the All-Pleistocene, but after the Shang Zhou Dynasty, elk declined rapidly. Hominids do not pose a threat to elk due to their low population density and low level of productivity. After the Shang Zhou, due to natural changes, elk's own reasons and human interference, the elk continued to decrease.
From the perspective of natural factors, because the elk is an animal that loves warmth and humidity, and the temperature in China in the past 5,000 years has gradually cooled, the swamps and waters have also decreased significantly, and the changes in the natural environment have a greater impact on the elk. From its own factors, elk mainly feed on aquatic and terrestrial grasses and legumes, and narrow feeding habits are also their own factors that threaten the survival of elk.
elk
Population growth and agricultural development have encroached on the elk's living areas. Human hunting has seriously affected the survival of elk. Archaeology has found that the number of elk bones unearthed at human sites between 10,000 and 4,000 years ago is comparable to the number of domestic pig bones. It can be seen that elk were hunted in large numbers by humans as food at that time. According to the Ancient Texts, the number of elk hunted in ancient times reached 348. In addition, elk has also been made into various medicines for curing diseases and strengthening the body, and it is recorded in the "Compendium of Materia Medica" that "elk antler power is better than deer antler velvet... The antler horn of the elk to supplement the yin, the main treatment of all hemorrhages, muscles, bones, waist and knee pain, nourishing the yin and kidneys..." "Pengzu Taking the Food Classic", "Family Collection Experience Formula" and the modern "Dictionary of Traditional Chinese Medicine Prescriptions", there are dozens of formulas for using elk antler velvet, horns, bones, etc. Elk thus became the object of human pursuit for medical treatment.
Natural factors and the elk themselves are the reasons for the gradual reduction and decrease in the number of elk, while the interference of human activities is the determinant of the elk's extinction in the wild.
Elk has been extinct as a wild population for many years, and on August 14, 1986, with the joint efforts of the World Wildlife Fund and the Ministry of Forestry of China, 39 elk from seven zoos in the United Kingdom returned to their hometown , Dafeng, Jiangsu Province , and stocked in the Dafeng Elk Sanctuary. Chinese elk are mainly distributed in three protected areas, namely Jiangsu Dafeng Elk National Nature Reserve, Beijing Daxing Elk Park, and Hubei Shishou Elk National Nature Reserve. Among them, the 1.17 million mu Jiangsu Dafeng Elk Conservation Area is the largest elk reserve in the world, with the world's largest elk population, accounting for about 28% of the world's elk population. Dafeng Elk National Nature Reserve is a natural ideal place for wild elk stocking. Suitable habitats, combined with careful care by protected area staff, rank among the largest wild populations, reproduction rates and survival rates in the world. After breeding and expansion, it has reached more than 1,000 heads. Jiangsu Dafeng Elk Sanctuary has the world's largest population of wild elk, and about 52 elk have been released here. The world was the first to establish a self-sustaining wild population of elk, completely free from human dependence, ending centuries of history of no wild population of elk.
On November 6, 2020, China successfully released 25 adult elk back into nature. For more than 30 years, China has strengthened elk conservation by strengthening habitat construction, population reconstruction and scientific research, and the number of elk populations has exceeded 8,000. [1]
<h3>Resources</h3>
1. Release 25 more! The number of elk in China has reached 8,000 [Cited on 2020-11-08]
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