Himalayan Muskdeer

About the Himalayan Muskdeer

The white-bellied musk deer or Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) is a musk deer species occurring in the eastern Himalayas of Nepal, India, and possibly Bhutan and China. It is listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List because of overexploitation resulting in a probable serious population decline.

It was previously considered a subspecies of the Alpine musk deer, but was separated on the basis of different skull proportions. The white-bellied musk deer is well adapted for high elevations, with adaptations like a dense coat of coarse hairs with air-filled cells to insulate against the extreme temperature, well-developed dew claws, and broad toes that provide increased stability on steep slopes. It has a pair of enlarged and easily broken canines that grow continuously. The maximum length of these tusks is about 10 cm (3.9 in). These deer have a stocky body type; their hind legs are also significantly longer and more muscular than their shorter, thinner forelimbs. In place of running or leaping, this species tends to "bound." Finally, fawns of this species have white spots to help with camouflage, but as they mature these spots disappear.

The white-bellied... Wikipedia →