The Tibetan red deer (''Cervus canadensis wallichi'') also known as ''shou'', is a subspecies of elk/wapiti native to the southern

Tibet Tibet (; ''Böd''; ) is a region in East Asia, covering much of the Tibetan Plateau and spanning about . It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people. Also resident on the plateau are some other ethnic groups such as Monpa people, ...

an highlands and

Bhutan Bhutan (; dz, འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Druk Yul ), officially the Kingdom of Bhutan,), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is situated in the Eastern Himalayas, between China in the north and India in the south. A mountainou ...

. Once believed to be near-extinct, its population has increased to over 8,300, the majority of which live in a 120,000-hectare nature reserve established in 1993 in

Riwoqê County Riwoche (; ) is a county under the administration of the prefecture-level city of Chamdo in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. The county lies in eastern Tibet and borders Qinghai province to the north. Riwoche is the name of the county, the co ...

, Qamdo Prefecture,

Tibet Autonomous Region The Tibet Autonomous Region or Xizang Autonomous Region, often shortened to Tibet or Xizang, is a province-level autonomous region of the People's Republic of China in Southwest China. It was overlayed on the traditional Tibetan regions ...

, China. Some have been kept at the beginning of the 20th century in London, and in a small zoo south of

Lhasa Lhasa (; Lhasa dialect: ; bo, text=ལྷ་ས, translation=Place of Gods) is the urban center of the prefecture-level Lhasa City and the administrative capital of Tibet Autonomous Region in Southwest China. The inner urban area of Lhasa ...

Description

The Tibetan red deer is relatively massive built with short legs and a large, square muzzle. The winter fur is light sandy-brown, except the grayish face. The summer coat is slate-gray. The large, white rump patch, which includes the short tail, has no dark rim as it is seen in the Sichuan deer, for example. Those from the eastern part of the range have a dark dorsal line and represent probably the ''C. c. affinis'' type, which is now usually included in the ''shou''.Valerius Geist: ''Deer of the World: Their Evolution, Behaviour, and Ecology'', Stackpole Books, Mechanisburg PA 1998,

Relationships and range

Tibetan red deer, along with Sichuan deer and

Kansu red deer The Kansu red deer (''Cervus canadensis kansuensis'') is a subspecies of wapiti found in the Gansu province of China. This subspecies forms, along with the closely related Sichuan deer, and Tibetan red deer The Tibetan red deer (''Cervus can ...

, forms the southern group of wapiti. It lives in northern Bhutan and southern Tibet, where it is recorded from the

Chumbi Valley The Chumbi Valley, called Dromo or Tromo in Tibetan, is a valley in the Himalayas that projects southwards from the Tibetan plateau, intervening between Sikkim and Bhutan. It is coextensive with the administrative unit Yadong County in the T ...

close to

Sikkim Sikkim (; ) is a state in Northeastern India. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China in the north and northeast, Bhutan in the east, Province No. 1 of Nepal in the west and West Bengal in the south. Sikkim is also close to the Sil ...

and from

Lake Manasarovar Lake Manasarovar (Sanskrit: मानसरोवर), also called Mapam Yutso (;) locally, is a high altitude freshwater lake fed by the Kailash Glaciers near Mount Kailash in Burang County, Ngari Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. ...

. It was believed to be completely extinct until a small population was rediscovered in 1988 in Bhutan and southeastern Tibet. The original range probably covered many smaller valleys of the

Brahmaputra River The Brahmaputra is a trans-boundary river which flows through Tibet, northeast India, and Bangladesh. It is also known as the Yarlung Tsangpo in Tibetan, the Siang/Dihang River in Arunachali, Luit in Assamese, and Jamuna River in Bangla. I ...

to the north of the Himalaya (

Yarlung Tsangpo River The Yarlung Tsangpo, also called Yarlung Zangbo () is the upper stream of the Brahmaputra River located in the Tibet Autonomous Region, China. It is the longest river of Tibet and the fifth longest in China. The upper section is also called D ...

). A survey in 1995 brought the exciting finding, that a population of about 200 Tibetan red deer still persists to the north of the Yarlung Tsangpo River close to the village of Zhenqi. As this is the only known viable population of this deer, it is planned to establish a reserve for protection here. Evidence for some other relict populations has been found around the

Subansiri River The Subansiri River; is a trans- Himalayan river and a tributary of the Brahmaputra River that flows through Tibet's Lhünzê County, Shannan Prefecture and the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam. The Subansiri is long, with a dra ...

. They are preyed on by the Himalayan wolf.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:deer, red, Tibetan Tibetan red deer Mammals of Tibet Tibetan red deer Tibetan red deer