TheCentral Asian red deer (Cervus hanglu), also known as theTarim red deer, is adeerspecies native toCentral Asia, where it used to be widely distributed, but is scattered today with small population units in several countries. It has been listed asLeast Concern on theIUCN Red List since 2017.[1] It was firstdescribed in the mid-19th century.[2]
Thescientific nameCervus hanglu was proposed byJohann Andreas Wagner in 1844 for a deerspecimen fromKashmir that differed from thered deer (Cervus elaphus) in the shape and points of theantlers.[2]In the 19th and early 20th centuries, the following red deer specimens from Central Asia were described:
Cervus cashmeriensis was proposed byAndrew Leith Adams in 1858 for the red deer occurring in the montane forests of Kashmir.[3]
Cervus bactrianus proposed byRichard Lydekker in 1900 was a live deer caught in the vicinity ofTashkent inUzbekistan and brought toEngland.[5] Two years later, he considered this ungulate to be a red deersubspecies (C. e. bactrianus).[6]
Cervus hagenbeckii proposed by a Russian zoologist in 1904 for a red deer fromRussian Turkestan that was sent to theMoscow 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 ofmitochondrial DNA of 125 tissue samples from 50 populations of thegenusCervus included two samples fromTajikistan 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 subsequentphylogenetic analysis ofCervinae tissue samples indicated that deer samples from Central Asia form a distinctclade and warrant to be raised tospecies level.[11]The Central Asian red deer group appears to havegenetically diverged from the European red deer group during theChibanian period between 770,000 and 126,000 years ago.[12]
The first phylogenetic analysis using hair samples of the deer population inDachigam National Park inJammu 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.
