Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus), also known as the milu () or elaphure, is a species of deer native to the subtropical river valleys of China. It grazes mainly on grass and aquatic plants. It is the only extant member of the genus Elaphurus. Some experts suggest demoting Elaphurus to a subgenus of Cervus. Based on genetic comparisons, Père David's deer is closely related to Eld's deer.
Père David's deer were hunted almost to extinction in their native China by the late 19th century, but a number were taken to zoos in France and Germany and the deer was bred successfully in captivity. In the early 20th century, the British nobleman and politician Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, acquired a few Père David's deer from the Berlin Zoo and built up a large herd on his estate at Woburn Abbey. In the 1980s, the duke's great-grandson Robin Russell, 14th Duke of Bedford, donated several dozen deer to the Chinese government for reintroducing the species to the wild. In 2020, the wild population in China was estimated at 2,825 individuals, with a further 7,380 in various nature reserves in China. All Père David's deer alive today descend from Herbrand Russell's original herd.
Demography Père David's deer is endemic to the Chinese region. According to fossil records, the species first appeared during the Pleistocene period, when it could be found across Manchuria. This demography changed during the Holocene period; during this time, the species could only be found in the swamp lands and wetlands of southern China. Due to hunting and land reclamation, the population of the Père David's deer became even smaller. By 1939, the last of the wild species were shot and killed.
Naming and etymology This species of deer was first made known to Western science in 1866 by Armand David (Père David), a French missionary working in China. He obtained some hides and the carcasses of an adult male, an adult female and a young male, and sent them to Paris, where the species was named "Père David's deer" by Alphonse Milne-Edwards, a French biologist. The binomial nomenclature, Elaphurus davidianus, was also given by Milne-Edwards, with the generic name formed from the Greek word ἔλαφος ('stag') and οὐρά ('tail').
The species is sometimes known by its informal name sibuxiang (; Japanese: ), literally meaning "four not alike", which could mean "the four unlikes" or "like none of the four"; it is variously said that the four are cow, deer, donkey, horse (or) camel, and that the expression means in detail: "the hooves of a cow but not a cow, the neck of a camel but not a camel, antlers of a deer but not a deer, the tail of a donkey but not a donkey". "the nose of a cow but not a cow, the antlers of a deer but not a deer, the body of a donkey but not a donkey, tail of a horse but not a horse" "the tail of a donkey, the head of a horse, the hoofs of a cow, the antlers of a deer" "the neck of a camel, the hoofs of a cow, the tail of a donkey, the antlers of a deer" "the antlers of a deer, the head of a horse and the body of a cow"
By this name, this undomesticated animal entered Chinese mythology as the mount of Jiang Ziya in Fengshen Bang (translated as Investiture of the Gods), a Chinese classical work of fiction written during the Ming dynasty.
Characteristics
The adult Père David's deer reaches a head-and-body length of up to and stands about tall at the shoulder. The tail is relatively long for a deer, measuring when straightened. Weight is between . The head is long and slender with large eyes, very large preorbital glands, a naked nose pad and small, pointed ears.
The branched antlers are unique in that the long tines point backward, while the main beam extends almost directly upward. There may be two pairs per year. The summer antlers are the larger set, and are dropped in November, after the summer rut. The second set—if they appear—are fully grown by January, and fall off a few weeks later.
The coat is reddish tan in the summer, changing to a dull gray in the winter. Long wavy guard hairs are present on and coat throughout the year, with the coat becoming woolier in winter. There is a mane on the neck and throat and a black dorsal stripe running along the cervicothoracic spine. The tail is about in length, with a dark tuft at the end. The hooves are large and spreading, and make clicking sounds (as in the reindeer) when the animal is moving.
A semiaquatic animal, Père David's deer swims well, spending long periods standing in water up to its shoulders. Although predominantly a grazer, the deer supplements its grass diet with aquatic plants in the summer.
Behavior Père David's deer has similar reproductive physiological mechanisms to other deer species living in temperate latitudes. These mechanisms aid in the adaptation to a high-latitude environment. The reproductive behavior in stags differs from hinds. In stags rutting behavior includes urine sniffing, anogenital sniffing, wallowing, and antler adorning. Communication behavior includes the spraying of urine and preorbital gland marking. The stags generally begin to rut before any signs of female sexual behavior. The reason to this is to establish a social rank among the stags. For Père David's deer the stag initiates the breeding season with the rutting. In hinds, estrous behavior includes urinating frequently, receptivity, and allowing the stags to mount. Parental behavior involves sniffing the calf, calling, and rubbing the face of the calf. The hind has a typical behavior of being solitary.
Birth and lifespan The gestation period is about nine months, roughly around 280 days, after which a single offspring is usually born; twins are born rarely. The gestation period is significantly longer than any other deer besides the roe deer. Père David's deer are considered seasonal breeders because three out of four calves are born during April in captive European populations. The breeding season is 160 days with the mating season usually being in June and July. Calf weight, calculated using Robbins and Robbins equation, tends to be between . The juveniles (referred to as either fawns or calves) have a spotted coat, as is commonly seen in most species of deer. They are known to develop very quickly after birth. They reach sexual maturity at about 14 months. The average lifespan of a Père David deer is up to 18 years.
In captivity An experiment was conducted to show how captivity would affect the deer's behavior and survival rate. Two areas were created; one with a large area containing a few Père David's deer present and one with a small area containing a high concentration of Père David's deer present. It was found when in captivity, it is best to keep the deer in large open areas that allow for adequate space with a reasonable number of individual deer living in the area; if put in a small area with a multitude of individuals present, stress amongst the deer will build up. Studies have shown through the high concentration of fecal matter in an area of captivity with limited space and a large number of Père David deer that they have shown different behavioral patterns to their wild counterparts. These deer would spend less time resting, and would stand longer due to human presence as well as display social aggression and competition over food sources. It is therefore unwise to keep them in small, densely populated areas to prevent accumulation of stress and aggression against each other.
Père David's deer has been in isolation from the wild for more than 1200 years, causing humans to be the primary perceived threat due to a long-term lack of exposure to other natural predators. When encountering humans, the deer's response varies according to sex. Female-only groups display a lower degree of caution towards humans than in male-only groups. It was hypothesized that the presence of a single type of threat may be sufficient to maintain anti-predator responses in the face of relaxed predation pressure. During rutting season, the does will display increased vigilance and heightened threat perception, likely in response to the mating activities of the males.
Predation Historically, the main predators of the Père David's deer are believed to have been tigers and leopards. Although they no longer encounter these predators while living in captivity, while experimenting with exposures to images and stimuli relating to these big cats, the deer seemed to instinctively react with a cautious predator–prey response typical of wild deer.
Population
In Neolithic times, the milus range extended across much of China proper. Archaeologists have found milu antlers at settlements from the Liao River in the north to Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province and across the Yellow and Yangtze River Basins in Shaanxi and Hunan Province. According to official data, the total population of the species has exceeded 8,000 in China. Milu is also under first-class state protection in China. In 1985, China Biodiversity Conservation and Green Development Foundation (CBCGDF) was established to help receive 22 Père David's deer from the Marquess of Tavistock of Woburn Abbey, England, as a gift to return to their ancestral soil.
Extirpation in China The last known wild herd was on Hainan Island. It was still present in 1868 when two skins were purchased by Robert Swinhoe. The exact date of the extinction of the Hainan Island population is unknown with ambiguous references suggesting its possible it survived into the 20th century.
In the late 19th century a captive herd belonged to Tongzhi, the Emperor of China. The herd was maintained in the Nanyuan Royal Hunting Garden in Nan Haizi, near Peking. In 1895, one of the walls of the hunting garden was destroyed by a heavy flood of the Yongding River and "the starving peasants, made homeless by the same flood, killed and ate every animal in sight, including all the Milus [deer]". After the extirpation of the Chinese population in 1900, the English nobleman Herbrand Russell, 11th Duke of Bedford, was instrumental in saving the species. He acquired the few remaining deer from European zoos and formed a breeding herd in the deer park at his home at Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire. The herd started with 18 deer of which 11 were able to breed.
Threatened again by both World Wars, the species survived largely due to the efforts of Bedford and his son Hastings, later 12th Duke of Bedford. The current world population, now found in zoos around the world, stems from the Woburn Abbey herd.
Reintroduction
Reintroduction of Père David's deer to China began in 1985, with a herd of 20 deer (5 males and 15 females). This was followed in 1987 by a second herd, consisting of 18 deer (all females). Both herds had been drawn from the Woburn Abbey herd and were donated by Robin Russell, Marquess of Tavistock (d. 2003; the future 14th Duke of Bedford), the 11th duke's great-grandson.Robin Russell, Marquess of Tavistock, was the son and heir apparent of John Russell, 13th Duke of Bedford (d.2002) who had become a tax exile in Monaco leaving the Bedford estates in England to be managed by his son In 2005 the Beijing authorities erected a statue of the 14th duke at Nan Haizi to mark the 20th anniversary of the Milu reintroduction. The transportation was sponsored by the World Wildlife Fund. The relic site of the Nanyuan (or Nan HaiziSouth China Morning Post announcing the arrival of the first herd of Milu in Beijing Aug. 26, 1985 ) Royal Hunting Garden in the southern suburbs of Beijing was chosen as the site of re-introduction, creating the Beijing Milu Park. The population in China expanded to around 2,000 in 2005.