Fort Towson

The dwarf musk deer or Chinese forest musk deer (Moschus berezovskii, Chinese: 林麝; pinyin: Lín shè) is an artiodactyl native to southern and central China and northernmost Vietnam. The species name is after the collector Mikhail Mikhailovich Berezovsky. On June 14, 1976, China entered the dwarf musk deer onto its endangered species list.[3] Four subspecies are recognized:[4]

  • Moschus berezovskii berezovskii Flerov, 1929
  • Moschus berezovskii bijiangensis Wang & Li, 1993
  • Moschus berezovskii caobangis Dao, 1969
  • Moschus berezovskii yanguiensis Wang & Ma, 1993

Parasites

Eimeria spp. from Moschus berezovskii

As most animals, the dwarf musk deer harbours a number of parasites.[5] In 2021, a study showed that ten species of Eimeria, which are apicomplexan protozoans living in the digestive tract, were specific of this host.[6]

References

  1. ^ Wang, Y. & Harris, R.B. (2008). "Moschus berezovskii". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2008. Retrieved 29 March 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of endangered.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ^ Endangered Species – Dwarf Musk Deer Facts
  4. ^ Don E. Wilson; DeeAnn M. Reeder, eds. (2005), Mammal Species of the World. A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (in German) (3rd ed.), Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4
  5. ^ Hu, Xiao-Long; Liu, Gang; Wei, Yu-Ting; Wang, Yi-Hua; Zhang, Tian-Xiang; Yang, Shuang; Hu, De-Fu; Liu, Shu-Qiang (2018). "Regional and seasonal effects on the gastrointestinal parasitism of captive forest musk deer". Acta Tropica. 177: 1–8. doi:10.1016/j.actatropica.2017.09.021. PMID 28963064.
  6. ^ Gao, Yunyun; Duszynski, Donald W.; Yuan, Fulin; Hu, Defu; Zhang, Dong (2021). "Coccidian parasites in the endangered Forest Musk Deer (Moschus berezovskii) in China, with the description of six new species of Eimeria (Apicomplexa: Eimeriidae)". Parasite. 28: 70. doi:10.1051/parasite/2021067. PMC 8525326. PMID 34665126. Open access icon

Notes

  1. ^ Only populations of Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan. All other populations are included in Appendix II.