Endangered deer spotted in SW China nature reserve

Photo provided by the local multimedia center in Changning County, southwest China's Yunnan Province shows the two endangered forest musk deer captured by an infrared camera in the Lancang River nature reserve on Aug. 5, 2021. (Changning Multimedia Center of Yunan/Handout via Xinhua)

KUNMING, Sept. 14 (Xinhua) -- Two endangered deer have been spotted in a nature reserve in southwest China's Yunnan Province.

The pair with a white stripe on each side of their necks has been confirmed to be female deer and her young one belonging to the forest musk deer species, which is endangered and was listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species in 2015, the reserve said on Tuesday.

Images of the rare deer were caught by an infrared camera in the Lancang River nature reserve in Changning County, Yunnan. The pair was coming out of the woods, with the calf capering all the way.

The wildlife primarily inhabits areas between altitudes of 2,000 to over 2,800 meters and is under first-class national protection in China.

It is the first time that a calf belonging to the species has been spotted in the reserve, suggesting conditions are favorable for the deer to multiply, said Dai Xiaoming, a wildlife protection expert with the county's forestry and grassland bureau.

The reserve plans to step up monitoring the deer's activity areas.