Williamson's mouse-deer
Species of mammal
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Williamson's mouse-deer (Tragulus williamsoni), also called the northern mouse-deer and Williamson's chevrotain is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. It is found in Thailand and southern China. The species is named after the collector Walter James Franklin Williamson.[3]
| Williamson's chevrotain | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Tragulidae |
| Genus: | Tragulus |
| Species: | T. williamsoni |
| Binomial name | |
| Tragulus williamsoni | |
 | |
Morphology
Williamson's mouse-deer is a tawny colored ungulate with a darker head and a white underbelly. It has a white triangular patch on the throat with a tawny border.[4]
Williamson's mouse-deer measures around 0.47m long and weighs around 3.5kg making it significantly larger than most other mouse-deer.[4][5]
Habitat and ecology
Williamson's mouse-deer is found in Thailand and in the Yunnan province of southern China.[1] It favors low-altitude habitats with dense foliage along the banks of rivers or streams. Williamson's mouse-deer demonstrates a preference for areas populated by fig trees, Burmese grapes, Alpinia kwangsiensis, and Phrynium capitatum.[6]
Williamson's mouse-deer is crepuscular. This may enable it to avoid competition with larger herbivores such as boars, muntjacs, sambars, and serows, all of which are more active nocturnally than the mouse-deer.[5]
Description and taxonomy
Williamson's mouse-deer was described by the English zoologist C. Boden Kloss in 1916 as a subspecies of the lesser mouse-deer (Tragulus kanchil). The holotype specimen was collected by Walter James Franklin Williamson from the Me Song Forest in northern Thailand. It is held at Natural History Museum in London.[7][8]
Conservation status
The IUCN Red List lists Williamson's mouse-deer as data deficient. Based on its known range, it is presumed to be threatened by local hunting practices and by habitat loss due to logging,[1] farming, rubber plantations, and urbanization.[5]
Williamson's mouse-deer is listed as a first-class protected species in China.[5]