Deer of David - four animals in one

The Deer of David is almost on the verge of extinction, currently surviving only in captivity. This animal is named after the explorer-zoologist Arman David, who watched the last remaining Chinese herd and spurred society to an active position to preserve this population, whose second name is Milu.

What does the name "Si-pu-xiang" mean

The Chinese call this mammal "Si-pu-xiang", which means "not one in four". This strange name refers to how the deer of David look. The species of deer resembles a mixture of four animals: hooves like a cow, but not a cow, a neck like a camel, but not a camel, a deer antler, but not a deer, a donkey's tail, but not an ass.

The head of the animal is thin and elongated with small pointed ears and large eyes. Unique among the deer, this species has horns with a main branching of the anterior segment extending in the opposite direction. In summer, its color becomes reddish, in winter gray, there is a small scruff, and along the back is an oblong dark streak. If horned representatives are spotty with pale splotches, then we have a young deer of David in front of us (photo below). They look very touching.

Description of the deer David

The body is 180-190 cm long, the shoulder height is 120 cm, the length of the tail is 50 cm, and the weight is 135 kg.

The kingdom - animals, type - chordates, class - mammals, order - artiodactyls, suborder - ruminants, family - deer, genus - deer David.

This species has close relatives described by description:

• Southern red muntjak (Muntiacus muntjak);

• Peruvian deer (Andean deer antisensis);

• Southern Pudu.

Reproduction

Since the deer of David is practically not found in the wild, observations of its behavior are made when kept in captivity. This species is social and lives in large herds, except for the periods before and after the breeding season. At this time, the males leave the herd to fatten and intensively build up strength. Deer-males are fighting with the help of horns, teeth and forelegs with rivals for a group of females. The females also want to compete for the attention of the male, they bite each other. Successful horns win dominance and as the fittest males mate with females.

During mating, males practically do not feed, since all attention goes to control over dominance over females. Only after the fertilization of females, the dominant males begin to eat again and quickly restore weight. The breeding season lasts 160 days, as a rule, it happens in June and July. After a gestation period of 288 days, females give birth to one or two deer. Oleny at birth weigh about 11 kg, stop eating mother's milk in 10-11 months. Females reach sexual maturity after two years, and males - during the first year. Adult individuals live to 18 years.

The habits

Males are very fond of "decorating" their horns with vegetation, entangling them in bushes and reeling greens. For the winter in December or January, the horns are discarded. Unlike other species, the deer of David often makes roaring sounds.

He eats grass, reeds, leaves of shrubs and algae.

Since there is no way to observe this population in the wild, it is not known who is the enemy of these animals. Presumably - a leopard, a tiger.

Habitat

This species appeared during the Pleistocene somewhere in the vicinity of Manchuria. The situation changed during the Holocene, according to the remains of the animal found (deer David).

Where does this species live? Aboriginal habitats are believed to have been marshy low-lying meadows and reed-covered places. Unlike most deer, these can swim well and stay in the water for a long time.

Since deer lived in open wetlands, they were easy prey for hunters, and in the 19th century their population rapidly declined. At this time, the emperor of China moved a large herd to his "Park of Tsar's Hunt", where the deer flourished. This park was surrounded by a wall at a height of 70 meters, it was forbidden to look for it even on pain of death. Nevertheless, Armand David, a French missionary, risking his life, discovered the sight and was fascinated by these animals. David persuaded the emperor to give back a few deer to be sent to Europe.

Soon, in May 1865, there were catastrophic floods in China, they killed a large number of deer David. After that, about five individuals remained in the park, but as a result of the uprising, the Chinese occupied the park as a defensive position and ate the last deer. At that time in Europe, these animals were bred to ninety individuals, but by the time of World War II, due to food shortages, the population had again fallen to fifty. The species survived largely thanks to the efforts of Bedford and his son Hastings, later the 12th Duke of Bedford.

After the war, the population of deer in Europe grew, and in 1986 a small group of 39 individuals was re-imported into the Chinese reserve. There were fears that if they were returned to their habitat, they could face many problems because of the many years spent in captivity. Because of this, animals could lose adaptive behavior. The species may no longer be able to fight alone parasites, ticks and predators.

Reserve for deer

The homeland of these exotic animals is China, where they were formed for nature reserves, which contain more than 1,000 individuals.

The Dafa Reserve was a home for David. It is the largest of its kind in the whole world, it is there that the largest number of residents of Milo.

Dafeng National Nature Reserve covers an area of 78,000 hectares, it was established in 1986 on the east coast of Jiangsu Province.