Tarim River is located in the northern part of the Tarim Basin of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, the entire basin is as high as 1.02 million square kilometers, with a total length of 2179 kilometers, becoming the longest inland river in China, ranking fifth in the world, as an ancient river, this name has been used from the Tang Dynasty to today, and The Saya in Xinjiang is the most abundant place of the entire inland river, here there is also a large area of poplar forest, every autumn comes, the golden poplar forest has become the most beautiful scenery here.
Recently, several wild red deer have come here, crossing the Tarim River, with golden poplar forests, becoming the most beautiful picture in autumn.
Red deer, as China's second-class protected animals, once also had a huge population, but because of a large number of hunting and habitat loss, they were once threatened, fortunately, with the joint efforts of humans, their populations have grown rapidly, and now they have become a state of no danger.
When many people hear this name, they think it is a combination of horses and deer, but this is not the case, so is it a horse or a deer? Let's find out!
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="11" > the origin of the red deer name</h1>
Deer animals since ancient times have symbolized "royal power", in the legend is more immortal beast-like existence, "Materia Medica" once used "deer is a fairy beast, self-happy" to describe it, Li Shizhen is more praised for it, so people are more like the deer as a thing of auspiciousness, then what kind of existence is the red deer?
In fact, it also comes from the deer family, the size is second only to the moose, it is also a large animal, the appearance is strong, the huge body allows everyone to remember it at a glance, the first time you see it, you feel as pretty as a horse, the hair is dark brown, there are some white spots on the back and sides, mainly living in alpine forests or grasslands, belonging to social animals, mainly at night and early in the morning in the summer, in the winter will come out in the daytime, like running and swimming, So it is not surprising that it appears on the Tarim River.
Because of their tall stature, few animals will generally take the initiative to provoke them, and the adult road can reach about 200 kilograms, but for large predators such as lions and tigers, red deer are a delicious dinner, so in the forest, when the red deer encounters threats, they will also use their running skills to avoid threats.
Male red deer will be larger than the female, on their heads have a pair of horns, look like branches, adult red deer is generally 6 to 8 forks, in the deer family, it is considered to be the best, sika deer also only 4 to 5 forks, so in appearance is still easier to distinguish.
And this pair of beautiful horns also brought them a disaster, early people loved antlers, and the red deer this pair of huge horns also contain a lot of gum, can be medicated, boiled to produce pure natural antlers, it is no wonder Li Shizhen praised it.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="21" > has a history of 12 million years and is related to the Irish elk</h1>
The origin of the red deer is actually very early, as early as 12 million years ago it has existed, when it was still the geological era of the earth, and the red deer of this period should not be like this, there are scientists to study, the ancestors of the red deer are actually Irish elk, in the related fossils found that the appearance of this creature, and the modern red deer is very similar, so it is not excluded that there is actually a strong blood relationship between the two.
Unfortunately, the Irish elk has ceased to exist, as the largest deer, in 1 million to 4500 years ago, they once lived in the land of Europe and Ireland, it not only has a strong body, even the antlers are the largest, and with the change of the times, the original Irish land is still very warm, but under the massive melting of polar glaciers, the temperature in Ireland continues to decline, so that the original green prairie into a white frozen soil, the Rations of the Irish Elk disappear. They also withdrew from the stage of history with such changes.
Irish elk
But perhaps some Irish elk at that time stepped out of their original comfort zone and multiplied into today's red deer with the changes of the times, and the similarity between the two is extremely high. The red deer was found in the southwest of Asia, so at this point, it is also possible to speculate that some groups of Irish elk fled to the Asian region to live because they felt the predicament of the living area.
The red deer's development is due to their strong reproductive ability, so that their number showed a strong trend in the early days, when there were more than 30,000 in the reserves in the Netherlands, and their life expectancy was comfortable, the big head was large, and the life expectancy was naturally longer.
Red deer such species are also particularly magical, they will develop different habits according to the different places of residence, although there are corresponding commonalities, but the red deer in different places are still different, like to stay in a more hidden environment, so as to avoid large and fierce animals such as lions, tigers and so on.
The red deer has the body of a horse, but has the personality of a deer, usually very docile, if the fierceness is only two situations, either encounter a strong opponent, or when choosing a mate, when the two males are winning the hearts of the females, the two sides will show their bravery and use fighting to compete, but when the other party loses, the victorious side will not chase after it, but will generously choose to let it go.
But if the two sides are evenly matched, it is possible to cause irreparable consequences, either to break each other's antlers, or to cause fatal damage to the other party, both sides will be able to stop, so when feeling that the enemy is not enough, if the male who knows the times admits defeat, it is very likely to avoid unnecessary harm, after all, there are so many females, they can always get their wives.
On the winning side, the female will naturally be invited to walk into the grass pile, enjoy the joy of the spring supper, let the female conceive their love crystals, wait for 8 months, there will be a cute young red deer born, and the cub will not walk immediately after birth, but it takes 2 to 3 months to fully develop and walk alone.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > red deer are not horse-to-deer hybrids</h1>
Although in the current era, we can see many organisms through hybridization to derive new varieties, such as mules are hybrids of horses and donkeys, lions and tigers are hybridized called lions and tigers, etc., but the red deer is not a combination of horses and deer species, it is only because of the similarity of body shape to horses, but in fact belongs to the deer family.
And the antlers on their heads are also the biggest identification point of deer, under this pair of antlers also have a magical brain, earlier in the Scottish Rum Island has done a study, after 40 years of tracking surveys, covering 7 generations of red deer, extracted a variety of samples, found in the skull of 1314 red deer, female red deer If the head size is larger, the lifespan will become longer, and this skill will also directly affect the offspring.
But perhaps affected by genes, the male red deer brain even if it is very large, will not change the lifespan, this may be a gift from the biological world for female red deer, their reproduction in addition to the ancient intemperation, resulting in some of the number of affected, at the moment, they are still able to live freely and happily, in the number of populations are not too dangerous, from the current distribution of groups in China, red deer active in Heilongjiang or Jilin mostly, the number of about 100,000.
But here in Xinjiang is not so optimistic, after several years of statistics, the number of wild populations in Tarim alone has declined a lot, from the original 15,000 to now only about 5,000, and the wild Tianshan red deer is more dangerous, with a population of about 3,000 per year in decline, they are already facing the danger of extinction.
When we see wild red deer walking through the Tarim River, that landscape is particularly beautiful, if the painter paints ink paintings on paper, how many people yearn for such a life, if it is you, in such a scene, it will definitely linger, in nature, all kinds of creatures have their meaning of existence, less hunting, more protection, the blue planet we live on will become more beautiful, do you think?