page_title: Water deer
section_title: Habitat and distribution
hierarchical_section_title: Water deer / Habitat and distribution
caption_attribution_description: English: gorani (Korean water deer) (Hydropotes inermis)
context_page_description: The water deer is a small deer superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer. Native to China and Korea, there are two subspecies: the Chinese water deer and the Korean water deer. Despite certain anatomical anomalies, including a pair of prominent tusks, and its lack of antlers, it is classified as a cervid. Its unique anatomical characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus as well as its own subfamily. However, studies of mitochondrial control region and cytochrome b DNA sequences placed it near Capreolus within an Old World section of the subfamily Capreolinae. Its prominent tusks, similar to those of musk deer, have led to both subspecies being colloquially named vampire deer in English-speaking areas to which they have been imported. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. It was first described to the Western world by Robert Swinhoe in 1870.
context_section_description: Water deer are indigenous to the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, coastal Jiangsu province (Yancheng Coastal Wetlands), and islands of Zhejiang of east-central China, and in Korea, where the demilitarized zone has provided a protected habitat for a large number. In China, water deer are found in Zhoushan Islands in the Zhejiang (600~800), Jiangsu (500~1,000), Hubei, Henan, Anhui (500), Guangdong, Fujian, Poyang Lake in Jiangxi (1,000), Shanghai, and Guangxi. They are now extinct in the southern and western China. Since 2006, water deer has been reintroduced in Shanghai, with population increased from 21 individuals in 2007 to 227~299 individuals in 2013. In Korea, water deer are found nationwide.
  Water deer inhabit the land alongside rivers, where they are protected from sight by the tall reeds and rushes. They are also seen on mountains, swamps, grasslands, and even open cultivated fields. Water deer are proficient swimmers, and can swim several miles to reach remote river islands. Chinese water deer are now located in United Kingdom, France and Argentina, and even some in the United States.
caption: Korean water deer
exif: {}