The Central Asian red deer (Cervus hanglu), also known as the Tarim red deer, is a deerspecies native to Central Asia, where it used to be widely distributed, but is scattered today with small population units in several countries. It has been listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List since 2017.[1] It was first described in the mid-19th century.[2]
The scientific nameCervus hanglu was proposed by Johann Andreas Wagner in 1844 for a deer specimen from Kashmir that differed from the red deer (Cervus elaphus) in the shape and points of the antlers.[2]
In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the following red deer specimens from Central Asia were described:
Cervus cashmeriensis was proposed by Andrew Leith Adams in 1858 for the red deer occurring in the montane forests of Kashmir.[3]
Cervus bactrianus proposed by Richard Lydekker in 1900 was a live deer caught in the vicinity of Tashkent in Uzbekistan and brought to England.[5] Two years later, he considered this ungulate to be a red deer subspecies (C. e. bactrianus).[6]
Cervus hagenbeckii proposed by a Russian zoologist in 1904 for a red deer from Russian Turkestan that was sent to the Moscow Zoo in the 1890s.[7]
IUCN Red List assessors provisionally recognised its status as a distinct species in 2017.[1]
The Central Asian red deer is thought to comprise three subspecies:
An analysis of mitochondrial DNA of 125 tissue samples from 50 populations of the genusCervus included two samples from Tajikistan and three from western China. The results supported the classification of the red deer populations in Central Asia as two distinct red deer subspecies.[10]
Results of a subsequent phylogenetic analysis of Cervinae tissue samples indicated that deer samples from Central Asia form a distinct clade and warrant to be raised to species level.[11]
The Central Asian red deer group appears to have genetically diverged from the European red deer group during the Chibanian period between 770,000 and 126,000 years ago.[12]
The first phylogenetic analysis using hair samples of the deer population in Dachigam National Park in Jammu and Kashmir was published in 2015. Results showed that these samples form a subcluster within the Central Asian red deer group; they are genetically closer to this group than to the European red deer.[13]
^ abcWagner, J.A. (1844). "Der Bahra-Singha". In Schreber, J.C.D. (ed.). Die Säugthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur, mit Beschreibungen. Vol. Supplement 4. Erlangen: Expedition des Schreber'schen Säugthier- und des Esper'schen Schmetterlingswerkes. pp. 351–353.
^Adams, L. A. (1858). "Chapter X". Wanderings of a naturalist in India : the western Himalayas, and Cashmere. Edinburgh: Edmonston & Douglas. pp. 176–207.
^Ellerman, J.R. & Morrison-Scott, T.C.S. (1951). "Cervus elaphus, Linnaeus 1758". Checklist of Palaearctic and Indian mammals 1758 to 1946 (First ed.). London: British Museum (Natural History). pp. 367–370.