Reeve's Muntjac

Reeves's muntjac, also known as the Chinese muntjac, is a small deer found widely in south-eastern China, from Gansu to Yunnan, and in Taiwan. It stands about 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) at the shoulder, weighs 10 to 18 kg (22 to 40 lb) and is reddish-brown with striped facial markings and a creamy-white belly. Mostly solitary and active at dawn and dusk, it feeds on herbs, blossoms, shoots, fungi, berries, grasses and nuts. Both sexes defend small territories marked with scent from facial glands. Males carry short antlers and long upper canine tusks, and its bark has earned it the name barking deer.

About the reeve's muntjac

Reeve's muntjac, also called the Chinese muntjac, is a small deer native to southeastern China, from Gansu to Yunnan, and to Taiwan. It takes its common name from John Reeves, a naturalist employed by the British East India Company in the 19th century. Fully grown, it stands about 0.5 m (1 ft 8 in) at the shoulder and reaches 0.95 m (3 ft 1 in) in body length, with a short tail up to 4 in (10 cm) long, and weighs between 10 and 18 kg (22 and 40 lb).

Its coat is reddish-brown with striped markings on the face, a creamy-white belly, and lighter fur running to the neck, chin, and underside of the tail. Males carry short antlers, usually 4 in (10 cm) or less, along with long upper canine teeth — tusks about 2 in (5.1 cm) long — that they use in fights, pushing a rival off balance with the antlers before wounding it with the canines. Females lack antlers but have bony lumps on their foreheads and localized black spots. A Taiwanese subspecies, Muntiacus reevesi micrurus, known as the Formosan Reeve's muntjac, is darker in color than other subspecies.

The species is also known as the barking deer for its distinctive bark, a sound most common during mating or when the animal is provoked — a name shared with other muntjac species. It is solitary and crepuscular, most active at dawn and dusk, and both sexes defend small territories that they mark with scent from preorbital glands, secretions thought to work as pheromones.

Behavior and diet

Reeve's muntjac feeds on herbs, blossoms, succulent shoots, fungi, berries, grasses, and nuts, and has been reported to eat tree bark as well. It takes eggs and carrion when the opportunity arises. Its preferred habitats are forest and shrubland, where it forages largely alone.

Females, known as does, reach sexual maturity within their first year of life, and mating occurs throughout the year rather than in a fixed season. Gestation lasts from 209 to 220 days. Females limit how many times they mate in a given cycle, though the interval between successive matings is set by the males, known as bucks.

Range and habitat

Reeve's muntjac is native to a broad swath of southeastern China, from Gansu to Yunnan, and to Taiwan, where it favors forest and shrubland habitat. It has also been introduced well outside that native range. Reeve's muntjac was first brought to the United Kingdom in the early 19th century. In the late 1800s, the Duke of Bedford brought animals to Woburn Abbey in Bedfordshire, then released them into the surrounding woods in 1901; more are thought to have escaped from the nearby Whipsnade Zoo, and further unrecorded releases or escapes from private collections likely followed. Woburn itself carried out several deliberate releases at distant sites across England during the mid-20th century — a pattern that later fed the mistaken impression that muntjac were spreading unusually fast on their own. By 1995 the estimated population in England had reached 52,000, and by 2008 it stood at 104,000; colonies now exist throughout England south of the Humber, under legal protections that make it illegal to release the species except where it is already established, and that now prohibit capturing and re-releasing muntjac entirely. It has also been introduced to the Republic of Ireland, Belgium, and Japan, and has been seen in the Netherlands. In Japan, escapes from a zoo in Chiba Prefecture and a 1970 fence failure on Izu Ōshima established populations now numbering in the tens of thousands on the Japanese archipelago. A population was once present in continental France as well, but it is no longer found there as of 2020. In Ireland, sightings in 2008 prompted the government, concerned about the species becoming established, to introduce a year-round hunting season for it.

Conservation status

Reeve's muntjac is listed as Least Concern by the IUCN, reflecting the fact that it is generally common and widespread. In Hong Kong, it is a protected species under the Wild Animals Protection Ordinance. Outside its native range, the picture is different: since 2016 the European Union has listed it as a Species of Union Concern, banning its import, breeding, transport, sale, or intentional release anywhere in the EU, and Japan considers it a harmful invasive species after escaped animals multiplied into the tens of thousands. An eradication effort on the Japanese island of Izu Ōshima, run from 2007 to 2014, failed to remove the population, which was still growing by about 15 percent a year as of 2014 — a failure attributed to inadequate survey methods.

The species also has economic significance in parts of its range. Its tanned skin is prized for its softness and is used in beauty-care products, musical instruments, lenses, and antique packaging, while its low-fat meat is valued for cooking.