Cerf's father David

(Jrt)

Cerf's father David
The deer's father David (Elaphurus davidianus) is a cervid known only in captivity. He lives in wetlands and we think it is from a subtropical region. It grazing grasses and aquatic plants.

Adults weigh 150 to 200 kg. The gestation lasts nine months and has a scope to two fawns. They reach their adult stage at the age of 14 months environs. Their longevity may reach 23 years.

The deer's Father David has a long tail, large wooden clogs and branched. The parure summer adults is red with a dark dorsal stripe, winter is dark gray. The fawns are spotted.

The Chinese name (Chinese:四不象; Pinyin: sì bù xiàng) results in four different because we believed that the animal had the wood of a deer, neck of a camel, the footing ' a cow and the tail of a donkey. With this name, this non-domestic mammals entering the Chinese mythology as the frame of Jiang Ziya in the novel of the Ming period, or Fengshen Yanyi The Investiture of the Gods.

The first mention of this animal in the West is made in the nineteenth century by Father Armand David (1826-1900), missionary and naturalist lazariste french working in China. At his age, the last surviving herd was located in a park belonging to the Emperor of China. The last Chinese deer herd of Father David was killed and eaten by Western and Japanese troops in China during the Boxer war.

After the father David has made known the existence of this mammal, a few specimens were sent to Europe and were high. After the extinction of populations of China, the surviving deer were moved from Europe to Britain to be high and thus preserve the species. All individuals today are the descendants of that herd.

Today, deer are found in many zoos around the world and a herd has been reintroduced in the Dafeng Nature Reserve in China in the late 1980. This species is considered very threatened but did not appear to have suffered genetically because of the small size of its population.

Mœurs
The Father David's deer living in the family group. It remains united during most of the year, except the period of the rut, during which the male lead independent lives by seeking to ensure the possession of a harem. Unlike most other species of deer, deer, Father David loves water. We think that its original habitat was a marshy region in the north-east of china where he had adapted to an aquatic environment. It is a very good swimmer: in hot weather, he can spend hours immersion in water to the shoulders. The male especially likes to vautrer in the mud, along lakes and ponds, making gicler of mud blocks shots.

Food
The deer's Father David eats mainly grass, but also leaves and seedlings. In fact, everything depends on the type of vegetation it finds in its environment. In summer, he attended willingly stagnant water and rivers during bit fast, and will complete his usual regime of grazing on aquatic plants.


Read also Père David's Deer

wikipedia