REEVES’ MUNTJAC FACTS
IUCN RED LIST STATUS 2020 Least Concern, population decreasing.
SEXES Male: buck; female: doe; young: fawn.
Also known as Chinese muntjac, barking deer, rib-faced deer and Formosan muntjac. (Note: a mischievous 2011 Wikipedia entry led to the proliferation of an erroneous alternative name of ‘Mastreani deer’ for muntjac in general.) Chinese: Huang-ji or Xiao-ji.
RECOGNITION FEATURES A small, stocky and short-legged deer with a pig-like appearance. The coat is reddish brown, becoming slightly darker in winter. Dark markings on the insides of the pedicles create a ‘V’ on the face of the buck, while the doe has a dark crown on the forehead and between the ears. The wide tail has a white underside and is held erect when the animal is alarmed or fleeing. Both sexes have prominent suborbital glands.
HEIGHT (At shoulder) 45cm to 50 cm (17¾in to 19½in); female slightly smaller.
WEIGHT 12kg to 17kg (26¼lb to 37lb).
FOOD A browsing deer that feeds selectively on shoots, leaves, herbs, fungi, fruits and nuts. The eggs of ground-nesting birds have also been recorded as taken during opportunistic feeding, and it has even been suggested that they will eat the flesh of birds and small mammals on occasion.
HABITAT A deer of forest, woodland and shrub land, it prefers areas that offer dense
ground cover. Where suitable local cover exists, such as that provided by waste land or overgrown gardens, it is prepared to live in close proximity to human habitation.
VOICE A rasping bark repeated every few seconds and often kept up over long periods of time. Both sexes bark as a warning and to communicate their presence.
ANNUAL BEHAVIOUR A solitary deer most often encountered alone, otherwise in rutting pairs or a doe with her fawn. Both
sexes are territorial, scent marking with their pronounced preorbital glands on foliage, although numbers can sometimes congregate in areas of preferred feeding, with little animosity usually shown between individuals. Dominant bucks will fight furiously, indulging in pushing matches while endeavouring to shove their opponent off balance before slashing at them with their sharp canine tusks. Ripped ears and scars to heads, necks, flanks and rumps are commonplace, especially in areas where densities are high.
RUT There is no fixed season for rutting, which can occur at any time of year. Both sexes achieve sexual maturity by around seven months of age.
GESTATION AND BIRTHING Gestation lasts about 210 days. Following the birth of the single fawn, the doe will come into oestrus and mate again within a day or two.
ANTLERS (TYPICAL)
Antlers are simple incurved spikes,
sometimes with a short brow tine, measuring around 10cm (4in) long.
ANTLER CYCLE Casting takes place between May and July, then new antlers are regrown
throughout the summer and usually clean
of velvet by late August or early September. As a young buck can be born at any time of year, he may not be able to synchronise with the adult antler cycle until he is two years of age.
LIFESPAN Normally around 10 to 12 years, though more than 20 recorded in captivity. THREATS Significant natural predators include the leopard, dhole and yellowthroated marten. Other threats come from habitat loss and hunting; at one point, before it became illegal, some 650,000 muntjac were killed for their skins every year in China out of an estimated population of just over two million, and they are still heavily hunted.