Pictures and facts about the Water deer

Chinese water deer
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Water deer

Order : Artiodactyla
Family : Cervidae
Subfamily : Hydropotinae
Genus : Hydropotes

Facts about the genus Hydropotes, the water deer

The hind legs of the Chinese Water Deer are longer than the fore legs which causes the rump to be carried higher than the shoulder, without appearing hunched up.

The other subspecies of water deer is Hydropotes inermis argyropus which is found in Korea.

Chinese Water Deer (Hydropotes inermis) Hydropotes is the only living species of deer in which neither sex possesses antlers.

Male Chinese Water deer are known as Bucks.

Muntjac and Chinese Water deer are more secretive, and difficult to spot in a park situation, therefore are less popular as park animals.

The Chinese Water deer is an intermediate species between the Muntjac and Roe deer.

The Chinese water deer is similar to the musk deer in that neither. (Full text)

The Chinese water deer is classified as Hydropotes inermis, and the caribou, or reindeer, as Rangifer tarandus. (Full text)

• NUTRITION AND WATER: Deer are browsers; they nibble on foliage and grasses in the summer and munch on twigs and evergreens in winter. (Full text)

When a Chinese water deer is disturbed, it humps its back and travels by a series of leaps. (Full text)

Male Chinese Water Deer are roughly the same size as the females. (Full text)

The Chinese Water Deer is usually shy and secretive; they usually either live in small groups or alone. (Full text)

Contrasting with current taxonomy, Hydropotes is not the sister group of all the antlered deers, but it is nested within the Odocoileinae. (Full text)

Molecular data indicate instead that Hydropotes is closely related to the roe deer (Capreolus), a species with simple branched antlers. (Full text)

3 BEHAVIOR Water deer are generally seen alone. (Full text)

STATUS In China, owing to increasing reclamation and cultivation of wetlands, the habitat of the water deer is gradually shrinking. (Full text)

Chinese Water Deer Skull - The Chinese water deer is a small cervid, native to regions of China, Southeast Asia and has been introduced in Europe. (Full text)

Conservation Status The Chinese water deer is a low risk, near threatened species (IUCN, 1996), and is often trapped as a pest in China. (Full text)

The tiny Muntjac Deer and Chinese Water Deer are even exempted from much of this very limited 'protection'. (Full text)