The Fairy in Mountains Cervus nippon taiouanus Taiwan, a small island close to mainland China, where lives abundant unique species. There are Oncorhynchus masou formosanus -- the only landlocked salmon of the world, Formosan macaque, Formosan serow etc.. Cervus nippon taiouanus is one of them. Formosan sika deer is the trivial name. It belongs to the Kingdom Animalia, Phylum Chordata, Class Mammalia, Order Ungulata, Family Cervidae, Genus Cervus, Species Nippon, Subspecies C. n. taiouanus. It is also the biggest one of the thirteen subspecies of Cervus Nippon. Because of the dramatic change in environmental conditions and the unlimited hunted in the past, the truly wild Formosan sika deer is already disappeared. The last wild one was said to be caught in 1969. After that, the ones we see today are all human-raised.The origin of Formosan sika deer is unknown because there is not enough research information in the past. Biologists conjectured the origin backtracks to the latest ice age about 10,000 years ago. The ice and snow melt and formed the Taiwan Strait, which separated Mainland China and Taiwan. Taiwan then became an island all surrounding by oceans. The most mammalians which can not fly were isolated and some of them evolved to endemic species. Some researchers believe that there are probably two different species of Formosan sika deer in the eastern and western parts of Taiwan due to isolation by the central mountain range. However, there is no evidence could prove their assumption. Formosan sika deer inhabits in deciduous forests, hills and fields about 400m ~ 500m elevations. It prefers short brushes with some trees covered area. It lives close to water sources and tends to live in groups. The distances from humen are also in consideration. The research shows that it keeps at least 800m from human population. Formasan sika deer is hervibore. It eats mainly herbage plants, leaves on deciduous trees and brushes. Their eating behaviors could be divided into four category which depend on the height of the plants. They are low, medium, high and reef levels. Level low eating plants include grass, falling leaves and small trees about the shoulder heights of the deer. Level medium plants are higher, the deers need to raise their heads to reach the leaves. Sometimes they would break the branches by pulling them down with mouth. The deer can jump for the level high plants. They snap at the branches in the air and bring the branches down. The males can use their antlers to get the higher leaves as well. The level reef plantsare harder for the deer to reach. Sometimes the deer would climb on the reef and prowl around. The biologists observed the releasing Formasan sika deer in Kenting National Park and found out that their mainly food consumption is at low level. The least one is the high level eating. Also, the males can reach higher branches than females because they are larger and are with their antlers. Formosan sika deer is about 1.5m in length, and the shoulder height is around 98 cm. It has a very beautiful name in Taiwanese which means a deer with plum flowers (The plum flower is also the national flower of Taiwan.) The color of its body changes with the seasons. In summer it has short and shiny hair in red-brown color. There is a dark brown line on the middle of its back and white plum blossoms on the sides of the body. In the winter the hair is longer and thicker with lighter color. The white spots is less obvious. The belly, insides of four limbs, under the tail and the butt area are white. The male deer also has long mane on the neck in winters. Males are larger and heavier than females. Females tend to stay in groups while males like being alone. Only the male has antlers. There is no branch on the antler before the age of two. The first branch grows during two to three years old. After three years old, they grow one branch per year until there are three branches. Some of them could have four branches. The antler can grow more than 70 cm in length. During the mating seasons in the autumn, the males will lock antlers and fight one another for a position of dominance and the right to mate. Also, males would roll themselves in the mud and making their scent stronger in order to attract females. The antler is one of the main cause for extinct of Formosan sika deer. Chinese believes that the deer’s antler is a good medicine. The hunters also love to have their beautiful skin. The invaders from Holland, China and Japan killed thousands and thousans of Formosan sika deer in the past. The records show that at least 100,000 pieces of deer skins were exported from Taiwan to those countries at that time. The habitats and the food sources for Formosan sika deer also decreased by the growing human populations. In 1984, the same time of the Kenting National Park built, the manage department of the park started a plan of reproduced Formosan sika deer. A group of biologist spent almost two years to compare the nuclears, DNA and genes to make sure the deers were truly origined in Taiwan. After compared genetic information among Cervus Nippon in Russia, Japan, China and Vietnam, there were apparent differences to Cervus nippon taiouanus. Thus, the biologists could assume that Formosan sika deer is the endemic species in Taiwan. They chose 5 males and 17 females from the Formosan sika deer in the Taipei City Zoo to be the parental generation. The recovery plan consisted three processes: preparing, releasing and tracking. Table. 1 The Stages of Cervus nippon taiouanus Recovery Plan Process Object Achievement Preparing (1984 - April 1988) - Collected Information - Chose the first generation - Chose the recovery area - Built institution - Completed reaserch - 22 deers were in November, 1986 - Set up120 hectares area in Kending National Park with 2 meter tall fence - Deer pen built and the food plants completed Releasing (April 1988 - 1994) - Release in different stages and keep its wildness - Natural adapation - The research of the plants usages and environment in the area - The reseaech of behaviors of the deers - The health and disease prevention system set up Tracking(1994) - Evaluated the success rates of the release action - Chose the places for releasing - Track the groups for their behaviors, variations, and effects of the areas in long term - Released 10 in January 1994 - Released 10 in April 1995 - Released 30 in January 1997 - Estimated the amount of natrual reproduction: over 100 deers - Educate people the importance of recovery To set up a system of diseases prevention and ovservation, the biologists started to do healthy check-up for all wildlife animals and the deers in the park from August, 1991 to July, 1992. They took blood samples in 30 released deers to test Mycobacterium and Brucella spp.. The results were negative. Also, four of them had lower numbers of RBCs, PCV, MCHC and TP than normal ranges. The fecal test results in 85 samples of 5 random tests, 9 of them were round worms positive. Some of the deer also had infection of Trichophyton spp. (skin diseases), alopecia (caused by louse), rotten on the ears (second infection), swelling on the face (caused by bee sting or others), overgrowth hooves (genetic problems), Clostridium Perfringens infection, and ulcer around newborn deer’s anus caused by licking too much from the mother. A healthy deer should be able to react immediately as something approaching. It is very sensitive in nature, alert at the first sign of danger, setting the neck upright and opening eyes wide. It is very easily stressed out by too much handling and disturbing by human. This is the reason that people should minimize the visits to the released deer and keep the voice down when approaches were needed. The stray dogs in Kenting National Park were the main threating. The deers were killed or injured because of getting bitten. Some of them had bone fractures and got second infection. The biologists also listed some common clinical signs of diseases that the deers may have. A sick deer would stay away from its herd if it was sick. It also would walk awkwardly, stand at abnormal postions or lay on the groud. The deers could have skin problems with the signs of hair colors and textures change, dischrage from eyes, the nose and the mouth. They would have diarrhea, abnormal bowel movement, weight loss, anorexia with the gastrointestinal diseases. As tracking the released Formosan sika deer, the biologists had a broadview of their distribution pattern and abundance. The competition among other animals such as sheep in the Kenting National Park became an unsolved issue. These two animals have similar inhabitants and eating habits. They both broadly eat grass and leaves on the deciduous trees. Sheep crowd out the deer to the area with lower quality and quantity of food sources. Sheep also have larger living areas than the deer because sheep are not afraid of human. Long term innutrtion would delay the sex maturity age of male deer and reproduction rates in females. The unhealthy females could not provide enough nutrtion to the babies, results in early death of newborns. It also effects the quality of colostrum from the females and reduces the immunity of the baby. Another issue for the recovery plan would be the low density of the group. The growing rate of the group was slow.The number of released deer were small so that they only stay aournd the recovery area. Biologists suggested to release several healthy adults regularly outside of the recovery area to the wild group. Increasing the number of healthy, reproductive with higher survival rate individuals in the wild group could raise the density gradually until it reach the safe range. It may also spread out the distribution of Formosan sika deer. The biologists considered to set up an exit for the selected individuals by installing a pedal-controlled door (In this case, the individuals were selected by weight.) By releasing individuals from the source group (In the recovery area) to the sink group (Outside of the recovery area), the group density, survival and reproduction rates could be raised gradually and meet the safe range of group numbers eventually. As mentioned before, there are so many unique endemic species in Taiwan and most of them are endangered because of the same reason of Formosan sika deer. Natural conservation and reproduction plans for the animals and plants are very important and serious issues. The typhoons and earthquakes are the main disaster in Taiwan. There are several typhoons passing directly or around Taiwan each summer and fall. Heavy rains wash down the mountains and cause landslides. The typhoon destroy the reserved areas for the wild animals and damage their food sources. In 1999, a quake registered a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale and had its epicenter at the central part of Taiwan. Ever since then, the natural environment condition in Taiwan is getting worse and worse. The biologists are still hoping their plans for the wildlife animals could cope with the dreadful environment. Wish the next few generations could have a chance to watch Formosan sika deer running freely in the mountains like fairies someday but to see them stock in a small pen in the zoo. Table. 2 The proportion of endemic species in Taiwan Category Species Endemic species/subspecies Endemic species/subspecies(%) Mammal 70 45 64 Bird 450 84 19 Reptile 85 27 32 Amphibian 32 10 31 Fresh Water Fish 220 36 16 Butterfly 400 50 13 Total 1257 252 20 Reference Retrieved March 1, from http://enanimal.tesri.gov.tw/main/animal_sub.asp?item=3&id=68&Icategory=1 Retrieved March 1, from http://www.ktnp.gov.tw/manager/pageeditor/stations/cp/10024/history03.asp Retrieved March 1, from http://www.tesri.gov.tw/english/E_species.asp Retrieved March 1, from http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:ux8vU8Z9-igJ:www.gio.gov.tw/webPage.asp%3FCuItem%3D19131+Taiwan+landlocked+salmon&hl=zh-TW&ct=clnk&cd=2 Retrieved March 1, from http://www.geocities.com/huxx0058/sika/stra.html Retrieved March 1, from http://72.14.205.104/search?q=cache:n3IEBS7TKzoJ:www.gio.gov.tw/info/ecology/English/animals_e/LowAnimals_e/LowAnimals06_e.htm+Formosan+sika+deer&hl=zh-TW&ct=clnk&cd=3 Retrieved March 1, from http://www.ktnp.gov.tw/manager/pageeditor/stations/cp/10026/research_res_84.asp Retrieved March 1, from http://www.newtaiwan.com.tw/bulletinview.jsp?period=341&bulletinid=9751
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