Also known as Rock Deer, White-nosed Deer, or Dama Fallow Deer, it belongs to the Cervidae family of Artiodactyla order, with the Latin scientific name Cervus albirostris, and English name Thorold's Deer or White-lipped Deer.
The body size of White-lipped Deer is similar to Water Deer and Horse Deer. The tearpits in the skull are large and deep. The lip periphery and lower jaw are white. Hence it is also called White-lipped Deer. The length of adult buck's horn is up to one meter, with four to six forks, while the female is hornless. Its hoofs are wide and large. It is yellow brown all over, with light-brown spots on the hip, but no black back line nor white spots commonly seen in other animals of the Cervidaefamily.
It inhabits on high and cold bosks or grasslands at an elevation of 3,500 to 5,000 meters. In daytime, it always hides in forest fringes or bosks, sometimes climbs cliffs of flowstone beach and bare rocks. Living in groups, it is good at climbing mountains and running. Mainly, it feeds on plants of theGramineae, Buckwheat, andCrassulaceae families, as well as leaves of many kinds of trees, with the habit of eating salt. Oestrus and mating mostly happen during the period from September to November each year. Among the males there is drastic fighting for mates. The gestation period lasts about eight months, one baby deer for each pregnancy, and the body of young deer has white spots. When it is two years old, the antler output is high, which is a rare material for traditional Chinese medicine.
Endemic species in China, it is distributed in Qinghai, Gansu, western Sichuan provinces and eastern Tibet.
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