Muntjac

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Muntjac

Muntjac are deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae . A number of broadly similar animals from related families within the order even-toed ungulate are often also called deer....
of the genus Muntiacus, also known as Barking Deer. Muntjac are the oldest known deer, appearing 15-35 million years ago, with remains found in Miocene

Miocene

The Miocene is a Geologic time scale of the Neogene period and extends from about 23.03 to 5.33 million years before the present. As with other older geologic periods, the rock beds that define the start and end are well identified but the exact dates of the start and end of the period are uncertain....
deposits in France and Germany.

The present-day species are native to Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia

Southeast Asia or Southeastern Asia is a subregion of Asia, consisting of the countries that are geographically south of China, east of India and north of Australia....
and can be found from India

India

India, officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and outlying territories by total area country by geographical area, the List of countries by population country, and the most populous liberal democracy in the world....
and Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
to southern China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Taiwan

Taiwan

Taiwan is an island in East Asia. "Taiwan" is also commonly used to refer to the country governed by the Republic of China and to the ROC itself, which governs the island of Taiwan, Orchid Island and Green Island, Taiwan in the Pacific Ocean off the Taiwan coast, the Penghu islands in the Taiwan Strait, and Kinmen and the Matsu Islands...
, Japan

Japan

Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, People's Republic of China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south....
(Boso Peninsula and Oshima Island), and Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia , is a transcontinental country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Comprising Islands of Indonesia, it is the world's largest Archipelago state....
n islands. Reeves's Muntjac has been introduced to England

England

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Encyclopedia

Muntjac are deer

Deer

Miocene

Southeast Asia

India

Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka is an island country in South Asia, located about off the southern coast of India....
to southern China

China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
, Taiwan

Taiwan

Japan

Indonesia

England

Rut (mammalian reproduction)

The Rut is the period of time when antlered ungulates mate. Ungulates include deer, sheep, elk, moose, caribou, ibex, goats, pronghorn and Asian and African antelope....
and mating can take place at any time of year. However, this behaviour is retained by populations introduced to temperate

Temperate

In geography, temperate or tepid latitudes of the globe lie between the tropics and the polar circles. The changes in these regions between summer and winter are generally mild, rather than extreme hot or cold....
countries. Males have short antlers, which can regrow, but they tend to fight for territory with their tusks (downward pointing canine teeth).

Muntjac are of great interest in evolutionary studies because of their dramatic chromosome

Chromosome

A chromosome is an organized structure of DNA and protein that is found in Cell . A chromosome is a single piece of DNA that contains many genes, regulatory sequence and other genetic sequence....
variations and the recent discovery of several new species. The indian muntiac is the mammal with the lowest recorded chromosome number with the male having a diploid number of 7, the female of only 6 chromosomes. Reeves's muntjac

Reeves's Muntjac

The Formosan Reeves's Muntjac , or just Reeves's Muntjac, is an endemic muntjac species of Taiwan. This muntjac is also found across the Strait of Formosa in Fujian and Zhejiang Provinces in China, Japan , and have been introduced in the Netherlands and England....
(Muntiacus reevesi) in comparison has a diploid number of 46 chromosomes.

Eleven species:

Indian Muntjac
Indian Muntjac

The Common Muntjac, also called Indian Muntjac is the most numerous muntjac deer species. It has soft, short, brownish or greyish hair, sometimes with creamy markings....
or Common Muntjac, Muntiacus muntjak
Reeves's Muntjac
Reeves's Muntjac

The Formosan Reeves's Muntjac , or just Reeves's Muntjac, is an endemic muntjac species of Taiwan. This muntjac is also found across the Strait of Formosa in Fujian and Zhejiang Provinces in China, Japan , and have been introduced in the Netherlands and England....
or Chinese Muntjac, Muntiacus reevesi
Hairy-fronted Muntjac
Hairy-fronted muntjac

The Hairy-fronted Muntjac or Black Muntjac is found in Zhejiang, Anhui, Jiangxi and Fujian in South China, also reported in northern Myanmar....
or Black Muntjac, Muntiacus crinifrons
Fea's Muntjac
Fea's muntjac

The Fea's Muntjac or Tenasserim muntjac is a rare species of muntjac native to People's Republic of China, Laos, Myanmar, and Viet Nam. The species has been introduced to Thailand....
, Muntiacus feae
Bornean Yellow Muntjac
Bornean yellow muntjac

The Bornean yellow muntjac is restricted to the moist forests of Borneo where it lives alongside the common muntjac. It is similar to its much more common cousin and was only recently recognised as a separate species....
, Muntiacus atherodes
Roosevelt's Muntjac
Roosevelt's muntjac

A single specimen of the Roosevelt's Muntjac or Roosevelt's barking deer was presented to the Field Museum in 1929 following a hunting expedition led by Theodore Roosevelt, Jr....
, Muntiacus rooseveltorum
Gongshan Muntjac
Gongshan muntjac

The Gongshan muntjac was recently identified by China scientists as a new species of muntjac, a type of deer, living in the Gongshan mountains in northwestern Yunnan, southeast Tibet and northern Myanmar....
, Muntiacus gongshanensis
Giant Muntjac
Giant muntjac

The Giant Muntjac is a species of muntjac deer. It is the largest muntjac species and was discovered in 1994 in Vu Quang, Ha Tinh province of Vietnam and in central Laos....
, Muntiacus vuquangensis
Truong Son Muntjac
Truong Son muntjac

Truong Son Muntjac or Annamite Muntjac is a species of muntjac deer. It is one of the smallest muntjac species, at about 15 kg, half the size of the Indian Muntjac ....
Muntiacus truongsonensis
Leaf Muntjac
Leaf muntjac

The leaf muntjac, leaf deer or Putao muntjac is a small species of muntjac. It was discovered very recently, in 1997, by biologist Alan Rabinowitz during his field study in the isolated Hukawng Valley in Myanmar....
Muntiacus putaoensis
Sumatran Muntjac
Sumatran Muntjac

The Sumatran Muntjac is a deer which can be the size of a large dog. The Sumatran muntjac was discovered in 1914, but had not been sighted since 1930, until one was snared and freed from a hunter's snare in Kerinci Seblat National Park, Sumatra, Indonesia in 2002....
Muntiacus montanus