「四不像」你還好么

來自專欄 動物君

中文字：770，建議閱讀時間：1.5分鐘；英文字367

Whenanimals are put on the endangered list it means, that the number of animalshave been lowered to a point where we should make sure they repopulate to apoint where they will be safe when left alone. The main problems of animal』sendangerment are human interaction and climate change with them losing theirnatural habitat.

PereDavid』s Deer akamilu麋鹿

Natural habitat: north-eastern andeast-central China, archaeologists have found antlers at settlements from theLiao River in the north to Jiangsu and Zhejiang Province and across the Yellowand Yangtze River Basins in Shaanxi and HunanProvinces

Main reason for decline is hunting

In the late 19

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centruay theonly herd belonged to Tongzhi the Emperor of China. The herd was maintained inthe Nanyuan Royal Hunting Garden in Nan Haizi, near Peking. suring 1895 one ofthe walls of the hunting ground was destroyed by a heavy flood of the YongdingRiver, most of the deer escaped and were killed and eaten by the starvingpeasants, less than 30 deer survived deer』s in the garden but was killed andeaten during the Boxer Rebellion.

Some deer as illegally transported toEurope for exhibition and breeding, after the extirpation of the Chinesepopulation in 1900,Herbrand Russell, 11

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Dukeof Bedford, was instrumental in saving the species. He took the species fromzoo from all over Europe and nurtured them at Woburn Abbey.

Found in china 2,000 years ago, this is awetland species that looks a lot different, it has a camel』s neck, donkeystail, cow hooves and stag antlers. The international Union for the Conservationof Nature and Natural Resources or IUCN for short, say that they are no wildPere David』s deer but are 1600 in captivity in china. But in 1980』s some of thedeer was reintroduced into the population and they successfully reproduced.

Its main predation in the wild as tigersand leopards because of these predators the species mainly kept in groups forprotection. While in captivity the deer was shown pictures of the big cats andeven though they never seen a big cat before they all acting like they would inthe wild if they met a big cat.

如果某類動物被列入瀕危名單，那就意味著該類物種的數量已低於某個臨界點，我們只有確保它們的種群數量恢復到臨界點以上，該物種才不致於滅絕。導致物種滅絕最主要的兩個方面：人為干預以及氣候的變化使它們逐步失去棲息地。

今天要介紹的就是在中國野外已滅絕的動物——麋鹿

所屬的自然棲息地：中國的東北及中東地區，考古學家曾經在遼河北部至到江浙區域，山西及河南省內黃河及揚子江流域發現過鹿角的化石。

種群數量驟減的原因是

人類的捕獵

麋鹿2000年前在中國被發現，它屬於沼澤、濕地區域的物種，被人們稱為「四不像」，因為它有駱駝的脖子，驢的尾巴，牛的蹄子，鹿的角。國際自然保護聯盟曾聲稱野生的「大衛鹿」已絕跡（麋鹿又被稱為大衛鹿），只有在1600年時被人為圈養一批。但是在1980年左右，該物種又被成功得培養並繁殖到一定數量。

19世紀的晚期，最後一批麋鹿是在清朝同治時期的北京南苑皇家獵場，1895年，受到永定河的洪水衝擊，其中的一片獵場被沖毀，大部分的鹿都被衝散，正逢義和團盛行，其結果就是被當地食不果腹的村民宰殺充饑。

一些鹿也被非法運送到歐洲展覽與培育，在中國野外麋鹿滅絕後，英國十一世貝福特公爵，herbrand russell在拯救該物種上發揮了至關重要的作用，他從歐洲各地動物園中買下了相關物種，在烏邦寺莊園內悉心培育。

麋鹿的主要天敵為老虎、獵豹，因此麋鹿總是以群體的形式活動。雖然現在的麋鹿都為人工飼養，為了今後更好得生活在野外，飼養人員多會培養麋鹿的危機意識，讓其知道貓科動物的危險性。

不過說到這，讓我想起了《小鹿斑比》，一部充滿愛與溫馨、探求生命存在和意義的經典童話。斑比在成長的過程中，朋友與家人對於那個最危險的TA,始終諱莫如深，直到親身經歷了生離死別，這才意識到森林中，最危險的生物就是「人類」。所以對於麋鹿，最可怕的可能不是貓科動物，而是那個有三隻手（《小鹿斑比》中，動物們將槍認作為人類的第三隻手）的TA。