𝘔𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘢𝘤𝘶𝘴 𝘮𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘫𝘢𝘬 (Zimmermann, 1780), also called the red muntjac (赤麂), is Hong Kong’s only local Cervidae (deer) species🦌, with its distribution extending further south to countries such as Thailand and Malaysia. The red muntjac is often confused with the chinese muntjac, a more northerly distributed species. With an average adult body length of 90 to 135 cm, the red muntjacs are slightly larger than chinese muntjacs. In addition, red muntjacs have a reddish-brown colour while chinese muntjacs have a yellowish-brown colour. In Hong Kong, only the red muntjac has been recorded and is commonly called Wong Geng (黃麖). The pronunciation of ‘Geng’ is similar to the meaning of ‘scared’ (驚) in Cantonese, which refers to its shy characteristic🙈. Similar to other Cervidae species, red muntjacs have long and slender legs, allowing them to run very fast to escape from predators like snakes🐍, wild dogs🐕 and tigers🐅 (now locally extinct in HK). Their hunched appearance is owing to their long hind legs.
Although red muntjacs are quite large, they are hard to see as they usually live in forests and are active at night. If you are lucky, you may have encountered it before, yet you may not have realised that it was a red muntjac. Why? The confusion arises from their unique vocalisation in which they make a barking sound so you may think that there were dogs🐶 barking nearby but not a deer. The red muntjac makes a barking sound to attract others for mating and also as an alarm when it is in danger🚨. This is why people also called the red muntjacs, barking deer.
Apart from its unique barking sound, the red muntjacs have distinctive black face marks on their face which are unique among deer. The black tear-like markings are not their tear gland💧, but their preorbital gland; with the muscle nearby controlling for its opening and closing. The unique movement of the red muntjacs' preorbital gland, which opens and closes dramatically, has led some people to describe them as ’alien deer’🛸. Compared with other mammals such as foxes and rabbits, the location of the preorbital gland of red muntjacs is also notable as the scent gland of mammals is usually located inside anal sacs which surround the anus. Red muntjacs open their glands by turning their scent gland inside out to rub their preorbital gland. This gland secretes pheromones, then released on trees🌳 or grass as a means of communication, or to mark a territory, particularly among male red muntjacs.
How can we identify whether the red muntjacs are male or female? One of the features we can observe is that female red muntjacs have diamond-shaped marks while males show V-shaped marks. Females also have tufts of fur and small bony knobs with no antlers while male muntjacs have back-curved unbranched antlers with thick pedicles. The thick pedicles are important for antler growth and antlers are crucial for sexual display and competition within male red muntjacs to attract female red muntjacs. One of the most distinctive features though in males is the presence of two elongated canines on the anterior part of head. Those are also a criterion of female muntjacs in choosing their partners. Despite their vampire-like appearance, these teeth are not specialised for tearing flesh as red muntjacs mainly feed on tender leaves🌿, twigs, fruits, or small animals.
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Text: Cherry
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