Alpine Musk Deer (Moschus chrysogaster): Endangered in China and Tibet

Wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals access two main sets of names when identifying the world’s known fauna and flora. The common, non-scientific, popular or traditional designation assumes the form alpine musk deer for one of Asia’s high altitude-dwelling moschids. The Greco-Latin, scientific, taxonomic name becomes Moschus chrysogaster for the above-mentioned alpine musk deer. The latter term belongs within binomial (“two-name”) identification systems. But it also can be expanded to fit within trinomial (“three-name”) taxonomies. The expansion depends upon the formal description of an animal or plant in terms of:

• Genus;
• Species;
• Subspecies.

Not all of the world’s taxonomized life forms get three names. For example, not all of Asia’s musk deer species have a further separation into subspecies.

The recognition of subspecies articulates subtleties in:

• Distribution ranges;
• Physical appearances.

For example, the Hodgson subspecies Moschus chrysogaster chrysogaster claims as bio-geographies southeastern and southern Tibet. The Büchner subspecies contrastingly finds native homelands in the People’s Republic of China’s provinces of:

• Gansu (Shoulu and Xinglong Mountain Nature Reserves), Ningxia (Helan Mountain Nature Range), and Qinghai in the northwest;
• Sichuan (in the western part) and Yunnan (in the northwestern part) in the southwest.

Both subspecies nevertheless prefer the same habitats and niches. They seek:

• Altitudes 6,561.68 – 16,404.19 feet (2,000 – 5,000 meters) above sea level;
• Monthly actual evapotranspiration of 21.92 inches (556.83 millimeters), precipitation of 3.57 inches (90.64 millimeters), and temperatures of 30.45°F (-0.86°C);
• Rocky, rough slopes inclined 30°.

High-altitude, stony mountain slopes give alpine moschids access to:

• Forests and woodlands of birch (Betula spp), fir (Abies spp), juniper (Juniperus spp), oak (Quercus spp), and pine (Pinus spp);
• Shrublands of dwarf rhododendrons (Rhododendron spp).

But the alpine musk deer also appreciates such other lofty configurations as:

• Grass- and thicket-lands;
• Lichen-rich understories;
• Rocky promontories;
• Stony outcrops.

The niches in all of the above-mentioned habitats fulfill alpine moschid survival needs for:

• Exercise;
• Food;
• Shelter;
• Socialization;
• Sustainability.

For example, they provide:

• Forbs and leaves from Gaultheria shrubs and oak trees in autumn and winter;
• Forbs, herbs, lichens, and mosses in spring and summer;
• Home ranges of 741.32 acres (300 hectares) for does and 2,223.95 acres (900 hectares) for bucks.

Cover always emerges as significant for population sustainability. It gives the alpine musk deer opportunities for:

• Avoiding extreme weather;
• Eluding predatory mammals;
• Finding rest;
• Mating;
• Raising newborns.

For example, the mating season lasts from December to January. It leads to:

• Calving in May and June after gestations of 6.5 months;
• Nursing within thickets for 3 – 4 months;
• Reaching sexual maturity at 18 – 24 months;
• Realizing ever shorter life cycles and natural histories -- 3 years in the wild and 4 years on musk farms – in previously hypothesized  life expectancies of 12 – 20 years.

Key to survival will be dominance and maintenance of:

• Dawn, midnight, and dusk foraging;
• Double-hissing and kick-boxing in unavoidable combat;
• Jumping, mountaineering, tree-climbing, walking.

Alpine musk deer offenses and self-defenses articulate:

• Longer, stronger rear-legs;
• Lower two-toed hoof, upper two-toed dewclaw per foot;
• Scent glands;
• 6 incisors, 2 canines, 6 premolars, 6 molars evenly divided between the left and right lower jaw;
• 2 fang-reminiscent canines, 6 premolars, 6 molars equally distributed between the left and right upper jaw.

Physical maturity assumes:

• Body, shoulder, tail lengths respectively of 33.86 – 39.37 feet (86 – 100 centimeters), 20.08 – 20.87 inches (51 – 53 centimeters), 1.58 – 2.36 inches (4 – 6 centimeters);
• Weights of 24.25 – 39.68 pounds (11 – 18 kilograms).

Camouflage-smart coloration bestows upon adulthood’s cautious and celeritous configurations:

• Big eyes;
• Dark nose;
• Grizzled brown upper-sides;
• Hairless muzzle;
• Hairless, tuft-ended tail;
• Rabbit-like ears;
• Yellow- and white-striped chest, chin, throat.

Admiration for Asia’s musk deer species goes back to ancient times. Moschids historically have ecological and economic roles within Earth’s biomes and cultures. Their obligate environmentalism as food-suppliers, plant-pruners, and vegetation-propagators oftentimes is eclipsed by the profitable popularity of:

• Exotic meat;
• Musky incenses, medicines, perfumes, soaps;
• Trophy dewclaws, hooves, tusks;
• Warm furs.

But the science- and technology-savvy, wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals of the twenty-first century make manifest an intelligent willingness to tackle such extreme challenges as:

• Globally-warmed climate change;
• Habitat fragmentation;
• Industrial pollution.

They represent the world’s first generations consistently instructed and practiced in environmental education, sciences, and studies in the classroom and the field. They therefore understand how to reconcile environmental, faunal, floral, and human well-being.

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Alpine Musk Deer's homelands: Lhasa's storied landscapes
Potala Palace, 1649-1959 residence of Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, rises above old city of Lhasa.
Lhasa, south central Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwest China: Qeqertaq, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Lhasa_from_the_Pabonka_Monastery.JPG

Taxonomic pioneer Carl Linnaeus is credited with identification of Moschus as musk deer genus.
1982 bronze sculpture of Carl Linnaeus by Robert Berks (born 1922)
Chicago Botanic Garden, Cook County, northeastern Illinois: stefanie seskin, CC BY SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_-_Father_of_Botany.jpg

Russian scientist Eugen Alexander Büchner (April 1 [Old Style: March 20], 1861-March 17, 1913) taxonomized Moschus chrysogaster sifanicus, Alpine Musk Deer subspecies.
Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Buchner_Eugene.jpg

British scientist Brian Houghton Hodgson is credited with identification of Alpine Musk Deer as species and of Moschus chrysogaster chrysogaster as subspecies.
oil on canvas (exhibited 1872) by Louisa Starr-Canziani (1845-May 25, 1909)
National Portrait Gallery, London: NPG 1707: Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Brian_Houghton_Hodgson_by_Louisa_Starr-Canziani.jpg

illustration of male Alpine Musk Deer (Moschus chrysogaster), collected by Mr. Drouin de Lhuys in Sichuan, southwestern China
Huet, pinx.; Chromolith: G. Severeyns
H. and A. Milne Edwards, Recherches pour servir à l'histoire naturelle des mammifères: Atlas (1868-1874), Plate 20: Biodiversity Heritage Library (BioDivLib), Public Domain, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/61021753@N02/7093178911/

Himalayan pine (Pinus wallichiana) shares nativity with Alpine Musk Deer.
Sagarmāthā National Park shares northern international border with Qomolangma National Nature Preserve of Tibet Autonomous Region; both are included in Sacred Himalayan Landscape (SHL), trans-boundary conservation areas of eastern Himalayas.
Sagarmāthā National Park, Solukhumbu District, northeastern Nepal: Vladimir Yu. Arkhipov, Arkhivov, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:S_N_P.jpg

Tibetan sand fox (Vulpes ferrilata), endemic to Tibetan and Ladakh plateaus, preys upon Alpine Musk Deer.
illustration by Johannes Gerardus "J.G." Keulemans (June 8, 1842 – March 29, 1912)
St. George Mivart, Dogs, Jackals, Wolves, and Foxes (1800), Plate XXVIII, opp. p. 121: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/17003140

Alpine Musk Deer homelands' changing landscapes: Xining skyline
Xining, anciently important site on Central Asian trade routes, is now largest city on Tibetan Plateau.
"Xining at night"; September 28, 2008, 22:53; eastern Qinghai Province, northwestern China: Aine Hickey (User: (WT-shared) Pinkfluffybrick at wts wikivoyage), CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Xining_at_night.JPG

Alpine Musk Deer homelands: south central Tibet's historic, spiritual landscapes
Yak (Bos grunniens), iconic bovid, and Yamdrok Lake, iconic freshwater lake, of Tibetan Plateau
Yamdrok Lake, Nangartse (Nakartse) County, Shannan Prefecture, southeast Tibet Autonomous Region, Southwest China: Dennis Jarvis, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bos_grunniens_at_Yundrok_Yumtso_Lake.jpg

East Himalayan Fir (Abies spectabilis) is a familiar tree to Alpine Musk Deer.
Namche Bazaar, Solukhumbu District, Sagarmatha Zone, northeastern Nepal: Mckaysavage on Flickr, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Abies_spectabilis_Namche_Bazaar.jpg

Alpine Musk Deer homelands: Ancient fallen tree trunks crisscross bottom of Five Flower Lake in Jiuzhaigou Valley.
Name of national park and nature reserve Jiuzhaigou Valley ("Valley of Nine Villages") references nine Tibetan villages along its length.
Min Mountains, edge of Tibetan Plateau, northern Sichuan, southwestern China: chensiyuan, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1_jiuzhaigou_valley_wu_hua_hai_2011b.jpg

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