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Chinese Water Deer

If you had seen deer or deer, I hope you know the one that will present you today in amazing nature, it is the Chinese Water Deer, it is one of the strangest mammals but amazing at the same time that nature can offer us, it is recognizable
by its anatomical characteristics that are uncommon in other species of Deer.

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Its scientific name is Hydropotes inermis, if we do a mental exercise and recreate the deer in our mind, the most probable thing is that we imagine a brown animal of average size and some good antlers, but. what if we put to that that we have just imagined some tusks? Let's see what it's all about.

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This species of deer has something in particular, has some tusks that protrude from their upper jaw and are difficult not to look, as they measure from 5 to 8cm long, which appear at 6 or 7 months of age, which change depending on the extreme condition to which they are subjected in the wild, can be firm and very visible when they feel attacked or backwards when they are calm grazing.

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They have a somewhat rounded body at the back and their head is very small with a slightly elongated snout that ends with a prominent black nose, their ears small and round, their tail is short and very hairy, which is almost always attached to the body, and usually hard to see it, making you think it lacks this.

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Its body has different shades of brown, from dark to light, cream and white, its coat is abundant and thick. Females are smaller than males, both sexes measure an average of 75 to 100 cm in length from 45 to 55 cm high and 9 to 14 kg in weight.

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They are endemic to China and Korea and are concentrated in not very large areas, some populations have been introduced in France and England.

The preferred places to graze are places of small trees and with many shrubs, banks or coastal plains where rice fields are one of its main food.
They are slightly solitary animals, sometimes they are in pairs, and almost never they are numerous groups, they are not aggressive unless it is a male opponent in reproductive season, they are highly territorial and they tend to delimit their territory very well, they do it by means of urine and feces, although they use more often their legs that are equipped by inter digital glands. Sometimes they choose to bite the vegetation to delineate territory.

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When a male is in a delimited territory there are fights where both specimens use their fangs nailing and wounding each other, the winner immediately expels his opponent from the territory. The females are usually more tolerant, allowing a maximum of 2 in their territory, although at times they are also expelled from their territory.
It usually feeds on soft grasses, reeds and varied vegetables, its digestive system does not allow it to digest well the carbohydrates of vegetables.

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They feed in the afternoon almost at the time when it gets dark, and during the day they usually rest, they dedicate a lot of time to feeding.
Their breeding season begins in November and ends in January, and the births of new pups are between May and July. Females give birth to 2 to 3 offspring, their gestation period is 170 to 210 days.

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Like most deer, this species is practically born walking, and it takes only an hour for the young of this deer to learn how to stay in balance.
Their state of conservation is very vulnerable due to the deterioration of their pastures as a result of human agriculture; they are also sometimes hunted for the consumption of their meat.