In Chinese culture, sika deer have been a symbol of auspicious longevity since ancient times, and their beautiful appearance and strong cultural meaning on them have made sika deer have always been loved by people. Although we have long mastered the domestication and breeding technology of sika deer, until now, the number of wild sika deer in China is still very rare, belonging to the national level key protected animals, and it is not easy to see its true appearance in the mountains and forests.
Sika deer, a wild animal of the small and medium-sized deer family even-hoofed order. Because of its many white spots, resembling plum blossoms, it is called "sika deer", in fact, their coat color is chestnut red in summer, with many white spots, and in winter it is smoky brown, and the white spots are not significant. They are endemic to East Asia , with a tall body , short tail , and long hind limbs. The sika deer has a striking buttock spot, when living alone needs to be invisible, it uses its tail to cover it, and when it comes to the clearing to convey information to its kind, it explodes its ass hair and raises its tail to become a "big white ass".
(Sika deer beautiful coat color in summer)
Wild sika deer are naturally alert and very sensitive to their surroundings. Their sense of hearing is particularly developed, and a little wind and grass will attract its attention. Some sika deer choose to protest with their voices when they encounter foreign aggression with little intensity, and the voice of the sika deer sounds like a long bird call, "yo yo deer song", which is indeed a vivid image.
The sika deer's diet is more mixed, and the leaves of trees and shrubs are their food. Although like all deer, it has no upper incisors, but its first pair of lower incisors are extremely wide, making it easy to cut hard branches and grass stems.
(Barberry, one of the foods of Sichuan sika deer, with hard spines)
As herbivores, they prefer to live in nested, water-rich areas of forest and grassland. They live in groups in open areas between the forests, resting under shady, tall trees and feeding next to the bushes. The vast living space provides them with the possibility of changing habitats over time: in spring, the sika deer herd lives on the hillside; Summer migration to shady slopes to live; In winter, they choose to be active on the warm slopes.
The wild populations of sika deer in mainland China are mainly distributed in Heilongjiang, Jilin, Sichuan, Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi, Gansu, Taiwan and other places. Due to changes in the ecological environment, the sika deer of the Hebei subspecies and the west Asian species of the Mountain have become extinct, and there are only a few sika deer of the South China asian species and the Sichuan subspecies.
Yin and yang, the prosperity of a subspecies
In Sichuan, there is a place where you can often "encounter" this rare animal, and the prosperity of the sika deer here has the inevitability of natural conditions, and there are also accidents of yin and yang.
This place is Ruoerge, the town of Tiebu in Ruoerge County, which is very suitable for sika deer to survive.
Ruoerge is located at the junction of Sichuan, Gansu and Qinghai provinces, which is not only a basin of the western plateau, but also the junction of the first and second steps of the mainland, located on the windward slope on the edge of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, so here the mountains are high and deep, the precipitation is abundant, the vegetation is luxuriant, the mountain system is developed, and there are more than 200 kinds of plant species that can be fed by sika deer in a year.
In summer, when sika deer are at their most beautiful, the orderly white markings on the reddish-brown body hair are very eye-catching. During the breeding season, the number of sika deer mother and child flocks is increasing, and the cute fawns are curious about everything and are more playful, but as soon as the mother leaves, it will keep up.
During this period, the newly grown antlers of the bucks have not yet been ossified, and they move with special care, generally moving alone.
(Bucks acting alone)
In the middle of summer in August, after the new ossification of the stags, they also begin to travel together, in the meadow highlands, enjoying the season when food is most abundant.
At first, it was thought that the sika deer was mainly distributed in northeast China, south China and other places, until the wild sika deer was accidentally found in Sichuan. By 1999, more than 800 sika deer living in Tiebu had been found, and the sika deer population living here, the Sichuan sika deer, had become the world's largest population of wild sika deer. Because of the suitable geographical environment, late discovery, and long-term ignorance of outsiders, these mountain elves were able to breed freely here, and slowly became the main population of wild sika deer.
In the verdant and deep valley, from time to time, there is the sound of yo yo deer, which is the most beautiful melody of this sika deer paradise.
How are more elves living now?
In order to protect wild sika deer, the mainland has set up nature reserves and national parks to provide a safe and natural living environment for wild sika deer in various regions and help their populations grow and develop.
Once considered extinct in the wild 20 years ago, the population of wild northeast sika deer is growing rapidly in the core area of The Siberian Tiger and Leopard National Park.
In Jiangxi Peach Red Ridge National Nature Reserve, the protection of sika deer has also been increasing, the number of sika deer in the reserve has increased year by year, coupled with the wide range of sika deer, in recent years, the local people and sika deer "unexpected encounters" incidents have also occurred from time to time.
This beautiful forest elf has more free living in the world.