Chinese Water Deer
The Chinese Water Deer is a small, compact deer. It stands slightly taller and is paler in colour than the hump-backed looking Muntjac Deer and looks more like a diminutive Roe Deer. The coat is an overall golden brown colour and may be interspersed with black hairs while the undersides are white. The strongly tapered face is reddish brown or grey in color and the chin and upper throat are cream coloured.
Both sexes lack antlers but instead the males have long downward pointing canines or tusks. The powerful hind legs are longer than the front legs so that the haunches are carried higher than the shoulders. They run with rabbit-like jumps.
Chinese Water Deer feed mostly at dawn and dusk around rivers, streams and marshy areas with plenty of shrubs and small trees and sometimes on farmland.
The Water Deer is superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer but it is classified as a cervid despite having tusks instead of antlers and other anatomical anomalies. These unique characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus and its own subfamily. They are native to China and Korea and there are 2 subspecies: the Chinese Water Deer and the Korean Water Deer.
Water deer are indigenous to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal Jiangsu province and the islands of Zhejiang of east-central China and Korea where the demilitarized zone has provided a protected habitat for a large number. The UK population of Chinese Water Deer is thought to account for 10% of the world's population.
Chinese Water Deer were first introduced in to the UK in the 1870s where they were kept at London Zoo. In 1896 they were transferred to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire with further additions being imported and added to the stock. In 1929 and 1930, 32 deer were transferred from Woburn to Whipsnade, also in Bedfordshire, and released in to the park. It is thought that the current Chinese Water Deer population at Whipsnade is over 600 whilst at Woburn it is probably in the region of 250 plus.
The present introduced population derives from a number of deliberate releases but the majority is descended from escapees. The majority of the wild Chinese Water Deer population still resides close to Woburn Abbey. It appears that the Chinese Water Deer’s strong preference for a particular habitat has restricted its potential to colonize further afield. The main area of distribution is from Woburn, east into Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and south towards Whipsnade. There have been small colonies reported in other areas.
Date: 15th November 2010
Location: Strumpshaw Fen RSPB reserve, Norfolk
Both sexes lack antlers but instead the males have long downward pointing canines or tusks. The powerful hind legs are longer than the front legs so that the haunches are carried higher than the shoulders. They run with rabbit-like jumps.
Chinese Water Deer feed mostly at dawn and dusk around rivers, streams and marshy areas with plenty of shrubs and small trees and sometimes on farmland.
The Water Deer is superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer but it is classified as a cervid despite having tusks instead of antlers and other anatomical anomalies. These unique characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus and its own subfamily. They are native to China and Korea and there are 2 subspecies: the Chinese Water Deer and the Korean Water Deer.
Water deer are indigenous to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal Jiangsu province and the islands of Zhejiang of east-central China and Korea where the demilitarized zone has provided a protected habitat for a large number. The UK population of Chinese Water Deer is thought to account for 10% of the world's population.
Chinese Water Deer were first introduced in to the UK in the 1870s where they were kept at London Zoo. In 1896 they were transferred to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire with further additions being imported and added to the stock. In 1929 and 1930, 32 deer were transferred from Woburn to Whipsnade, also in Bedfordshire, and released in to the park. It is thought that the current Chinese Water Deer population at Whipsnade is over 600 whilst at Woburn it is probably in the region of 250 plus.
The present introduced population derives from a number of deliberate releases but the majority is descended from escapees. The majority of the wild Chinese Water Deer population still resides close to Woburn Abbey. It appears that the Chinese Water Deer’s strong preference for a particular habitat has restricted its potential to colonize further afield. The main area of distribution is from Woburn, east into Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk and south towards Whipsnade. There have been small colonies reported in other areas.
Date: 15th November 2010
Location: Strumpshaw Fen RSPB reserve, Norfolk
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Also in: Other deer
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