Elaphurus davidianus :: science

Elaphurus davidianusPere Davids cervid is a disused Asian animal. Its pilot burner home is found in northeastern and east central China. In 1865, a French missionary by the name of Father Pere Armand David was tour China. While looking over the wall of the Emperors violet Hunting Park he observed a captive covey and later learned that the animals had been extinct from the wild for over 1000 years. He also discovered that this was the last remaining covey in china, and speedily took actions to preserve it. When Father David sent word to Europe about this rare species of deer it aroused much attention and resulted in getting a substantial amount of deer sent to several zoos throughout Europe. This deer is in the tribe of Cervidae, and of the order Artiodactyla. They are a medium size deer with a height of about 120 cm (male is 4 feet while the female is slightly smaller.) The weight ranges from 300 (females) to about 550 pounds (males). The Chinese call this deer the four unli kes, because of its odd looking features. Unlike near deer, the Pere has a long bushy tail that resembles a donkey, a hose-like gait, broad, turned hoofs, small ears, and backward antlers. The most distinctive characteristic would be the antlers. On the Pere, the main stem of the antlers lies forward of the head, while on other deer it lies towards the back. They fork right above the base, the tines point backwards, the last prong is unbranched and the first of all only branches once. The antlers reach a height of about two and a half feet. In the summer their coats are a reddish dark-brown that dims to a grayish brown in the winter. It is thought that their original homes were in swampy, reed-covered marshlands. Their diets consist of, steppes grass, and water plants. They live to the age of 20 in the wild and 23 in captivity, they reach maturity at 14 months and are born around April or May, they spend about golf-club months with their mothers before they are weaned. The bree ding of this species is very difficult and time consuming. some other strange trait of these magnificent animals is their love of water. They will spend hours stand in water up to their shoulders. Most of the deer from the original herd that were left in China were wiped out in 1895 by a severe flood, and the remaining deer were killed during the Boxer Rebellion in the untimely 1900s.