Overview
It is a small subspecies that is only a little larger than its Japanese counterpart. The back is brown with a long dark vertebral strip flanked from indistinct white spots, the belly is snowy white.
Taxonomy
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammal
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Cervidae
- Genus
- Cervus
- Species
- Cervus nippon
Habitat
Forested regions, migrate up and down in elevation depending on the seasons. Distribution- They previously inhabited the Yangtze River Basin all the way east to the coast, going as far south as the border with Vietnam. Today its small population of 300 is widely scattered along its former range, in remote mountains isolated by heavily populated lowlands. About 30 exists in the Tianmu Mountains in northern Zhejiang, 70 to 100 in southern Anhui, and 150 in northern Jiangxi. The population size in southern Guangxi is unknown, and a tiny population might exist in northern Guangdong
Diet
Forest browser.
Behavior
Usually solitary or in small family groups of a female and her offspring, and sometimes a stag as well. Prior to the rut, adult males establish territories, marking boundaries by urinating and scraping the ground with forelegs and antlers. Males are very noisy and aggressive during the rut, fighting each other to establish dominance, with the winners gathering harems of as many as 12 females, though six is more usual. The stag's roar starts as a high-pitched scream and often ends with a sound much like the hee-haw of a donkey. Alert and wary, they venture from cover only to search for food, and become almost totally nocturnal when persecuted. Eyesight, sense of smell and hearing are all good. They run with a bouncing gait.
Hunting
Refering to sika deer overall, they are excellent game animals in every respect. Stags can be called when rutting, but the caller must be within a stag's territory when doing so, because they are reluctant to cross their own territorial boundaries. Stags become aggressive during the roar, even toward man, and can be dangerous when wounded.
Conservation Status
Listed as Least Concern by IUCN. However this classification refers to the species as a whole, not this particular subspecie. Population estimates for this subspecie are not well-defined and more information is needed for current and future conservation efforts.