Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis)

Class: ................Mammalia
Order: ................Cetartiodactyl a
Family: ...............Cervidae
Subfamily: .........Hydropotinae
Genus: ...............Hydropotes

A) Description:

- The first time I saw this deer reading an encyclopedia, years ago, I thought: My God! vampires exist, not among humans, but among deer!

The Chinese water deer, of course, is not a vampire, but it has two long canine teeth or tusks protruding from the upper jaw that are 5.5-8 cm (2.1-3.5 in) long in males, that develop them instead of the antlers (absent either in males and females) and only 0.5 cm (0.2 in) in females. Just for the absence of the antlers, this species was named inermis (from the Latin word meaning unarmed; in the reality, its tusks don't make this deer so inermis.

These teeth are strange for another reason; the water deer can move them in their sockets by means of facial muscles, especially, to move them backward while eating.

During their competitions with other males for mating, these deer withdraw their lips to clearly exhibit these their tusks. If the show is not sufficient, the two deer start fighting trying to bite one another and their tusks can cause deep wounds, although these fights are rarely fatal. The frequent scars on the body of males show that these fights are frequent.

These teeth start growing at about 6-7 months of age, in autumn, during their first year of life and their complete development is complete in the following winter, at about 18 months of age, ready to be used for the first mating season against rival males, but also against predators.

These tusks show that this deer species is very primitive and the experts notice that tusks were used at the place of antlers before these evolved in nearly all modern deer species.

- This species is featured by a small size; their body is 75-100 cm (2.5-3.3 ft) long, 45-55 cm (18-22 in) high at the shoulder and it weights 9-14 Kg (20-31 lbs).

-Its legs are long and the neck slender, but the rear legs are longer and stronger, so that it runs with jumps similar to those of rabbits.

- Its coat is brown with grey shades that become more visible in winter when a thicker and longer fur against the cold appears. In their first months of life, the young have white stripes or spots along their flanks and back, to better camouflage in the vegetation.

- This deer is the only to own inguinal glands that produce an odorous secretion to mark the territory

B) Geographical

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