Where does the water deer live?
The water deer is a small deer native to Korea and China. It once lived across a much broader range, from eastern Tibet to Inner Mongolia, the Korean Peninsula and the Japanese archipelago, and northern Vietnam. It lived in Taiwan, but that population became extinct in the early 19th century. Today it lives in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal Jiangsu, islands of Zhejiang and Korea, where the demilitarized zone provides a protected habitat.
What does the water deer eat?
Water deer inhabit the land alongside rivers, where they are hidden from sight by tall reeds and rushes. Unlike all other true deer, they have prominent tusks: males use them in territorial fights. Males may also bite off vegetation to delineate territorial boundaries. Females do not seem to be territorial outside the breeding season and can be seen in small groups, but they disperse separately at any sign of danger.
Is the water deer endangered?
Yes: the IUCN lists it as Vulnerable. The population of the Chinese subspecies is critically endangered in China, while the Korean subspecies is known to number about 700,000 throughout South Korea. It was first described to the Western world by Robert Swinhoe in 1870.
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