Strange nocturnal creatures with fangs - are vampires the only ones?
When I cut that stretch of wire, the local guide accompanying me turned grim.
He was earnest and anxious, repeatedly urging me not to tell anyone what I had done after we descended the mountain, otherwise he would be "in trouble" in the village, and my follow-up investigation would also be "impossible to handle." For a moment I did not know how to respond.
What I yanked down from the tree was a thin wire several dozen meters long, with a battery and an inverter connected at the end. During the day, this wire device set up at ankle height looked utterly unremarkable, but once switched on at night, it would become a death trap dozens of meters long - any animal that inadvertently touched it could trigger an instant tens of thousands of volts ofhigh-voltage electricity, stunning large animals and possibly killing small ones outright.
I cut the wire and put it in my bag, then continued checking along the path, and found that beside the high-voltage wire was a game trail made by wild animals. On a fallen log beside the trail were scattered some wavy, stiff hairs, and under the trees on the shady slope were several piles of pellet-shaped ungulate droppings, pointed at one end and round at the other - these are the classic identifying features offorest musk deer(Moschus berezovskii) droppings and hairs.
Hairs left behind by chance can also bring deadly harm to forest musk deer and the animals of the entire region. Image: Li Sheng
I understood that this high-voltage line was set for forest musk deer, and other animals suffered along with them. In my field work over the past few years, this is the fate of the forest musk deer that I have witnessed.
A fanged herbivore
Among the several species of musk deer, the forest musk deer is the one with the most diverse habitat types, the widest altitudinal range, and the strongest adaptability.
Unlike the "deer" people usually know, musk deerhave no antlers in either sex. At the same time, male musk deer grow two longvampire-like fangs, used for fighting each other during the breeding season.
A nocturnal, fanged, strange animal - besides a vampire (fog), it could also be a forest musk deer. Yet today the chances of people observing forest musk deer in the wild (including by infrared camera) are extremely slim. Image: Daderot / wikimedia
"Sheep Climbing a Tree" is a traditional crosstalk routine about how incredible it is that a sheep can climb a tree, and most people just laugh it off after hearing it. The crosstalk performers probably never imagined that the tree-climbing superpower of the forest musk deer far exceeds the premise of that old routine.
Branches more than 2 m high, which an adult could only reach by stretching out a hand, an adult forest musk deercan leap onto without a running start. After getting onto the branch, they use their main hooves and side hooves to grip the slender twigs, and can climb at will in trees three or four stories tall, feeding on fresh tender leaves. Besides ordinary food, forest musk deer are also very fond of the Usnea lichen hanging from treetops and the tips of side branches, which counts as a rather distinctive taste.
Using their main hooves and side hooves to grip slender twigs, forest musk deer can climb at will in trees. Image: lifecatalog.ru
Newborn forest musk deer fawns are speckled with spots that blend into the surrounding environment. At this time, no matter how close a predator approaches, even standing right in front of the fawn or touching its ears, the little forest musk deer will respond to all changes by remaining unchanged, staying as motionless as a stone. The reason behind this is probably that at this stage the fawn moves slowly and fleeing is often futile,so it might as well pretend to be a stone, which is safer。
Musk deer are generally born in early summer; the picture shows a Himalayan musk deer (Moschus leucogaster) less than three weeks old. Image: Michael J.B. Green
Before the young musk deer can run smoothly, the behavior of the mother forest musk deer becomesexceptionally fierce. If another forest musk deer intrudes, the mother will immediately rush forward making a "kang-qie, kang-qie" threatening sound, and adopt a fighting posture, refusing to stop until the other retreats.
When a natural enemy or other large animal appears, even a human, the mother forest musk deer will deliberately make all kinds of noises, accompanied by strange behaviors such as jumping in place and stamping all four limbs simultaneously,drawing the enemy's attention to herself。
Except during the breeding season and for females with fawns, forest musk deer are rarely seen in pairs. Image: Peking University / Smithsonian Institution
A solitary life that is not lonely
In the course of natural evolution, forest musk deer became accustomed to living alone and appear to be a solitary animal, yet in reality their connection with the outside world is never interrupted. The musk gland and othercomplex odors secreted by various glandsmean that in the seemingly empty forest,there is an information network of forest musk deer everywhere。
Thedroppings and urine of forest musk deer contain pheromones, and both males and females habitually defecate at fixed sites. Therefore, in high-mountain forests far from human disturbance, one can sometimes see"forest musk deer latrines"where fresh droppings cover old ones, and the scattered area can exceed 1 sq m.
Fresh male musk deer droppings give off a strong scent of musk. Image: Xiang Dinggan
In addition, forest musk deer have on their hind legsmetatarsal glands, and as soon as they lie down with their legs against the ground, they can smear scent anytime and anywhere. Male forest musk deer also have well-developedtail glands, which can secrete a substance with a strong musky, gamey odor onto tree trunks.
The scent of musk is even more intense; besides the fangs, it is another feature possessed only by male musk deer. Themusk gland sacthat secretes musk is located on the male's abdomen near the navel, and is a spherical protrusion. The musk gland normally gives off an unusual fragrance, and at the turn of spring and summer each year its secretion intensifies even more, producing a large amount of strongly scented reddish-brown paste-like substance.
The hind legs have metatarsal glands, while the musk gland is the spherical organ located on the male's abdomen near the navel. Image: Qinling Laomao
The scent of musk serves as a marker, ensuring that a forest musk deer itself is not disturbed by members of the same species, especially the same sex, for most of the year; male forest musk deer also use this scent to complete the passionate pursuit during courtship. Yet it is precisely this scent that has brought forest musk deera whole body's worth of trouble。
Where have the musk deer gone
Once, hunting musk deer was legal. In the 1950s to 1960s, musk deer were among the most numerous herbivores in China's mountain forests.
However, because ofkilling musk deer to obtain musk, about 300,000 musk deer were hunted in the wild each year; by 1980, this number had multiplied several times over. Converted, in the more than 30 years after the founding of the People's Republic of China, several tens of millions of musk deer were killed for musk. Then, as if suddenly, people realized that the musk deer were gone.
The traditional way of obtaining musk is to kill the musk deer and take the musk, removing the musk sac, drying it and opening it; the black substance inside is musk. Image: huffingtonpost.kr
I also cannot be certain how many forest musk deer remain today, but in any nature reserve where I have worked, forest musk deer are fewer than pandas, takins, golden snub-nosed monkeys, and even most of the protected animals whose names we all know.
In a research project completed in 2015, my colleagues and I deployed thousands of infrared cameras in areas such as the Qinling, Minshan, and Qionglai Mountains. During the study period, records of takin exceeded 2,500 camera-days, Chinese goral and tufted deer exceeded 800, giant panda exceeded 300, the equally secretive Asiatic black bear, also under heavy poaching threat, had 100, whilethe forest musk deer that once filled the forests had only a mere 26。
Over more than 40,000 camera-days, the number of forest musk deer recorded was not even enough for us to conduct data analysis. Image: Peking University / Smithsonian Institution
Over millions of years of evolutionary history, forest musk deer have protected their home ranges, communicated with each other using information-rich scents, fiercely protected their fawns, and successfully adapted to various forest and grassland habitats from 1,000 m to 3,200 m elevation in southern China, becomingone of the most successful small ungulates. But after musk became an expensive raw material for perfumes and medicines, the forest musk deer had nowhere left to hide in the jungle.
Currently, the conservation status assigned to the forest musk deer by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) isEndangered (EN)。
The forest musk deer can adapt to an extremely rich variety of habitat types, yet is extremely sensitive to any human disturbance. Image: Peking University / Smithsonian Institution
Can farming save the forest musk deer
Today, the forest musk deerfarmingindustry is becoming more and more successful, and people hope this can reduce hunting of wild forest musk deer. Can this really be achieved?
Usually, an animal product based on farmingmust simultaneously meet the following conditionsto help wild populations stay away from poaching:
The farmed product is widely recognized as having the same effects and efficacy as the wild product;
The emergence of the farmed product will not expand market demand;
The farmed product is more cost-effective;
Farmed individuals do not need to be replenished from the wild;
Commercially sold products can be traced to their source, and wild animal products cannot enter the market.
Except for the third one, the other conditions are currently difficult to achieve, which is why currentlythe "legal" market is flooded with wild forest musk deer products. The road ahead of us may still be very, very long.
At a certain musk deer farm, forest musk deer accustomed to living alone can only endure sharing a cramped space. Image: hannah
Back to the beginning of the story. After reaching the village, we indeed did not mention dismantling the electric fence on the mountain. However, we invited local villagers to participate in our follow-up wildlife survey and to set up infrared cameras with us. With the villagers' help, we even photographed that forest musk deer that nearly died on the high-voltage line, and that small mountain, as if by a miracle, never again had high-voltage lines or wire snares.
I know the road ahead is long, but at least there has to be a beginning.
A female forest musk deer appearing in front of an infrared camera. Image: Peking University / Smithsonian Institution
This article is the 246th article of the 4th year of Species Calendar, from Species Calendar author @Wang Fang.
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