Anhui Musk Deer (Moschus anhuiensis): Chinese Species Endemic to Anhui and Possibly Hubei Province

Eastward-bound high-speed trains from Shanghai deposit passengers three hours later in Anhui Province. Tourists enjoy the four-season weather’s:

• Average annual rainfall of 29.53 – 66.93 inches (750 – 1,700 millimeters);
• Average coldest temperature of 30.2°F (-1°C);
• Average warmest temperature of 84.2°F (29°C).

They find ancient and modern attractions in the province’s Changjiang and Huaihe Rivers-demarcated geo-cultural areas:

• Northern plains;
• Southern slopes;
• Western mountains.

Inclusion on the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization World Heritage List gives visitors strong reasons for prioritizing trips to southern Anhui Province’s UNESCO-WHL sites, at:

• Hongcun and Xidi National Famous Historic and Cultural Villages;
• Mount Huangshan (“Yellow Mountain”) National Park.

Faunal, floral, and geological diversity particularly inspire visits to the province’s mountainous western region.

Springtime droughts and summertime floods can occur in Anhui Province’s northern regions. They do not impact the less variable expressions of a mild monsoon climate in Anhui’s southern and western regions. Dabieshan in the west and Huangshan in the south indeed function as Anhui Province’s major rain areas. The Dabie Mountain Range in fact is renowned as:

• The boundary marker for Anhui, Henan, and Hubei Provinces;
• The main watershed.

It offers to native wildlife:

• Altitudes 984.25 – 5,820.21 feet (300 – 1,774 meters) above sea level;
• Commercial plantings of chestnut (Castanea mollissima), mulberry (Morus australis), tea (Camellia sinensis), vetiver (Chrysopogon zizanioides);
• Granite-weathered soils;
• Rainfall events;
• Water bodies;
• Wooded slopes of revenue-generating bamboo (Bambuseae tribe) and cork oak (Quercus suber).

Wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals accept two main sets of names for the world’s taxonomized animals and plants. The common, non-scientific, popular name articulates the traditional or widespread way of identifying an organism. It generally emphasizes outstanding bio-geographical connections or physical traits. For Anhui’s moss-eating, musk-making, native deer species, it gets configured as Anhui musk deer. But it is not the only contemporary designation. It must share name-holding space with the Anhui moschid’s binomial (“two-name”), Greco-Latin, scientific identification. Wildlife-loving amateurs and specialists therefore need to remember the taxonomic name as Moschus anhuiensis, with the first term identifying the genus to which all moschids belong and the second the species that claims only moschids endemic (exclusive) to Anhui Province.

Unlike cervids (true deers), all moschids display:

• An absence of antlers and facial glands;
• The presence of gallbladders and tusk-like canines.

Their physique expresses asymmetric, petite looks with:

• Banded backs;
• Big eyes;
• Heavy rumps;
• Herbivorous (“plant-eating”) dentition (arrangement and number of teeth) with 6 incisors, 4 canines, 12 pre-molars, 12 molars;
• Longer, strong rear-legs;
• Rabbit-like ears;
• Shorter, weaker front-legs;
• Sloped withers.

Each foot gets one pair each of similarly-sized dewclaws and hooves to:

• Assist in jumping and walking agilely and quickly;
• Leave their clear prints in tracks.

The feet and legs additionally lay claim to some of the musk deer’s multiple fragrance-emitting glands, which occur:

• Anally;
• Caudally (around and on the tail);
• Nasally;
• Orbitally (near the eyes).

Coloration emerges as one way by which the different musk deer species can be identified. For example, Anhui moschids give grey-brown impressions. The earth colors have very savvy impacts upon Anhui musk deer life cycles and natural histories. Anhui moschids indeed inhabit niches within such high-elevation, montane habitats as:

• Broad-leaved forests;
• Coniferous forests;
• Dense shrub- and wood-lands;
• Mixed deciduous and evergreen forests.

The specimen which inspires the Anhui musk deer’s promotion from subspecies to species status in fact is from an altitude of 1,640.42 feet (500 meters) above sea level within the Changling region, Jinzhai County, Anhui Province. A survey of Dabieshan’s Mazongling Nature Reserve in 1993 records Anhui musk deer sightings at 3,280.84 feet (1,000 meters).

More than a super-hazy understanding of Anhui moschids demands:

• Collection of local anecdotes;
• Consultation of historical documents;
• Cooperation of wildlife specialists.

For example, it is known that the Anhui musk deer attains physical and sexual maturity with:

• Hair lengths of 2.13 inches (5.4 centimeters);
• Head-and-body lengths of 27.56 – 30.12 inches (70 – 76.5 centimeters);
• Shoulder lengths of 19.69 inches (50 centimeters);
• Weights of 15.65 – 21.39 pounds (7.1 – 9.7 kilograms).

It is suspected that the species commits to:

• Native home and territorial ranges in the Hubei Province side of Dabieshan;
• Permanent feeding paths, resting perches, sheltering places, watering points;
• Predictable diets of forbs, flowers, leaves, grasses, lichens, needles, twigs;
• Year-round home and territorial ranges demarcated by hoof-marks and scent-releases.

All musk deer species are elusive, non-aggressive, reclusive denizens of:

• Remote, rocky, rough, rugged slopes;
• Steep mountains.

Bio-geography, coloration, and deportment theoretically converge to ensure their survival and sustainability. But modern versus traditional interactions emerge all along urban versus wildland interfaces. One such conflict-riddled zone may exist for Anhui’s endemic musk deer species, which is:

• Predictable in lifestyle;
• Unique among moschids in realizing not just single but also twin births;
• Vulnerable as day-sleepers and evening-trippers.

Anhui Province offers many opportunities for:

• Agro-industrialism;
• Construction;
• Tourism;
• Transportation.

It theoretically welcomes black market-serving hunters of Anhui moschid meat, musk, and tusks. Provincial decision-making therefore will need to keep reconciling revenue-generating opportunities with:

• Environmental education;
• Governmental protection;
• Scientific research;
• Wildlife-loving activism.  

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

Human landscape of Anhui Musk Deer's native province: Ancient Village of Hongcun, inscribed with Xidi village as UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2000
An open watercourse flowing through all houses in Hongcun forms two ponds, one in center (Moon Pond) and the other, Nanhu, to village's south (South Lake).
Nanhu Lake, Hongcun Village, Anhui Province: Montblanc.tins at English Wikipedia (Montblanc.tins), CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nanhu_Lake.jpg

stunning native landscape of Anhui Musk Deer's native province: Huangshan ("Yellow Mountains") of southern Anhui Province, eastern China
"Huangshan / 黄山": Tauno Tõhk (toehk), CC BY 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/toehk/6320947145/

Anhui Province encompasses bamboo forests (Bambuseae) within its mountainous landscapes.
bamboo forest on Huangshan ("Yellow Mountains"), southern Anhui Province, eastern China: Mätes II, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Bamboo_at_Huang_Shan_IMG_2820b.jpg

Musk Deer: illustration by Cuthbert Edmund Swan (January 11, 1870 - December 1931)
Frank Finn, The Wild Beasts of the World, Vol. Two, opp. p. 80: Not in copyright, via Biodiversity Heritage Library @ https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/page/19080382

musk pod, obtained from the male musk deer
Guangdong University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Museum, South China Sea Coast, southeastern China: 乌拉跨氪, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Primary_Form_of_Musk.jpg

Dwarf Musk Deer (Moschus berezovskii), also known as Chinese Forest Deer; Anhui Musk Deer formerly was described as subspecies.
illustration by Swiss-French natural history artist Jean-Gabriel Prêtre (December 20, 1768-April 29, 1849)
Frédéric Cuvier, Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles. Planches. Zoologie: Mammifères (1816-1829): Public Domain, via BnF Gallica @ https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9669000q/f361.item

Landscape of Dabie Mountains, native habitat of Anhui Musk Deer: Mount Tiãntángzhài straddles Hubei Province's Luotian County and Jinzhai County in Anhui Province as second highest peak in Dabie Mountains.
Mount Tiãntángzhài landscape: Jiuzihe Township on Jiuwanxi River in Luotian County, Hubei Province
eastern Hubei Province, east central China: そらみみ, CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jiuwanxi_River_and_Jiuzihe_Town_near_Mount_Tiantangzhai.JPG

Anhui Musk Deer's native habit, lower left: "The forested Dabie Mountains, an important source of bamboo in the country, stand out from the gray haze and the olive-colored plains to the north."
image obtained May 29, 2007, via NASA Terra satellite's Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)
NASA image courtesy MODIS Rapid Response Team, Goddard Space Flight Center: Freely available for re-pub/re-use, via NASA's Earth Observatory @ https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/18411/fires-and-thick-haze-in-central-china

Anhui Musk Deer (Moschus anhuiensis)
Forelimbs that are shorter than hind limbs account for hindquarters that are higher than shoulders.
illustration by Eyal Musk Anhuvi (איור של אייל מושק אנחווי): מנחם.אל (menachem.el), CC BY SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:אייל_מושק_אנחווי_-_איור_של_משתמש-מנחם.אל.PNG

Landscape of Anhui Musk Deer's native province: Huangshan pine (Pinus hwangshanensis)
Ying Ke Pine, or Welcoming-Guests Pine, is estimated to have graced its landscape for over 1,500 years.: Andrew Ciceri (andreaqi), CC BY-SA 2.0, via Flickr @ https://www.flickr.com/photos/ciceri/2633615106/

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