Afghan Fanged Deer (Moschus cupreus): To Suspected Extinction and Back in Nuristan Province

Musk deer can be considered special for many reasons. For example, their taxonomy-related back-story theoretically confers privileged status. They count among the wildlife whose identification comes in 1758 from Råshult village-born Swedish scientist Carl Linnaeus (May 23, 1707 – January 10, 1778), as:

• Botanist;

• Physician;

• Proto-ecologist;

• Taxonomist;

• Zoologist.

Wildlife-loving amateurs and professionals generally deem it important to subject the earliest examples of Linnaean categorization systems to updates in the light of:

• Scientific advances;

• Technological breakthroughs.

But scientific methods and procedures do not get applied or followed regularly enough to ensure musk deer sustainability. Modern interactions and interfaces in fact result in all seven moss-eating, musk-releasing species in the genus Moschus being endangered by:

• Habitat loss;

• Illegal hunts.

Moschus alone claims membership in the Moschidae family described in 1821 by Walsall-born British scientist John Edward Gray (February 12, 1800 – March 7, 1875), as:

• Medical student;

• Museum entomologist;

• Zoological keeper, publisher, taxonomist.

Asia hosts all seven species. Northern- and southern-based species include:

• anuiensis (Wang, Hu & Yan, 1982), Anhui musk deer of China;

• berezovskii (Flerov, 1929), dwarf and forest musk deer of China, Vietnam;

• chrysogaster (Hodgson, 1839), Alpine musk deer of China;

• fuscus (Li, 1981), black and dusky musk deer of Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal;

• leucogaster (Hodgson, 1839), Himalayan white-bellied musk deer of Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, Sikkim;

• moschiferus (Linnaeus, 1758), Siberian musk deer of Korea, Manchuria, Mongolia, Siberia.

The west Asia-based species cupreus also joins the genus Moschus. Kashmir musk deer owe common designations to the species' first known European-based identifications through specimens from the namesake valley between the Great Himalayas and Pir Panjal Ranges. The scientific nomenclature reflects the expertise of Ealing-born English scientist Peter Grubb (1942 – December 23, 2006), as:

• Collaborator with London-born Australia-based bio-/palaeo-anthropologist Colin Peter Groves (born June 24, 1942);

• Researcher of giant tortoises (Aldabrachelys gigantea) of Aldabra Atoll, Seychelles;

• Specialist in Soay sheeps (Ovis aries) of St. Kilda Archipelago, Scotland;

• Taxonomist of African and Asian mammals.

The Zoological Society of London remembers Peter as the recipient of:

• Thomas Henry Huxley Award, 1968;

• The Stamford Raffles Award, 2006.

The Kashmir musk deer also claims as distributional ranges within the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan:

• Kunar and Laghman Provinces, per data-driven geo-models and transect surveys;

• Nuristan Province, per historical and recent observations.

As is the case in India and Pakistan, the antler-less herbivore favors remote, rough, rugged, steep, vegetated, wooded slopes at:

• Altitudes of 3,772.97 – 11,482.94 feet (1,150 – 3,500 meters) above sea level;

• Inclines of 20°+.

The evening- and night-time feeders frequent niches within such habitats as:

• Alpine scrublands;

• Coniferous (Pinophyta division) and fir (Abies spp) forests;

• Cushion plant-dotted fell-fields;

• Dense juniper (Juniperus spp) and rhododendron (Rhododendron spp) shrublands;

• High-altitude plateaus;

• Meadows;

• Remnant oak (Quercus spp) and pine (Pinus spp) forests.

The common name Afghan fanged deer, for Afghanistan's Kashmir musk deer, communicates hallmark musk deer features:

• Absent antlers and facial glands;
• Present musk-releasing glands and tusk-like teeth.

Solitary life cycles express prevailing configurations within moschid (musk deer) natural histories. Afghanistan's skittish ruminant (mammal with four-part stomach) inhabits scent-marked niches within loose communities. Mating produces in 150 – 180 days one fawn whose first month passes motionless in mother-defended hideaways. Physical and sexual maturity yields bodies:

• Measuring 31.49 – 39.37 inches (80 – 100 centimeters);
• Reaching 19.69 – 27.56 inches (50 – 70 centimeters) at the shoulders;
• Sporting 6 incisors on the lower jaw and 4 canines, 12 pre-molars, 12 molars equally distributed between both jaws;
• Weighing 15.43 – 37.48 pounds (7 – 17 kilograms).

The Wildlife Conservation Society of Bronx, New York accepts a possible 501.93 square miles (1,300 square kilometers) as Afghan fanged deer bio-geographies. The projections assume sufficient availability of:

• Flowers;
• Grasses;
• Leaves;
• Lichens;
• Mosses.

They consider the seesawing of:

• Human-generated habitat fragmentation;
• Human-induced population decline.

They describe the use of traps and weapons to kill Afghan fanged deer for:

• Enamel tusk-like canines;
• Fleshy body parts;
• Musk-filled scent-glands.

But they do not tally populations because of:

• The last known twentieth-century sighting dating from Danish scientists in 1948;
• The only twenty-first-century viewing occurring six decades later.

The October 22, 2014 issue of Oryx indeed reports the witnessing by WCS staff and WCS-trained locals of:

• One juvenile;
• Three males;
• Two females.

Afghan fanged deer appeal to wildlife-lovers. Their admirers are in favor of sustainable populations according to different agendas. Environmentalists cherish diversity. Entrepreneurs contrastingly extol the deer’s marketability as:

• Culinary delicacies;
• Musky aphrodisiacs, incenses, perfumes, traditional medicines;
• Trophy tusks.

Afghan fanged deer generate good environmental press by:

• Avoiding predatory confrontations since longer back-legs and shorter fore-legs negotiate all terrains;
• Using tusk-like canines to fake-joust with competitors during mating seasons.

They contrastingly get good entrepreneurial press since poachers expect:

• 0.81 ounces (23 grams) of musk per pod;
• $20,000 – 45,000 per pound (2.2 kilograms) of musk.

Halting the killing of 60,000 musk deer for every 14.11 ounces (400+ grams) of musk requires:

• 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;

• Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University for superior on-campus and on-line resources.

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