Endangered
Kashmir musk deer
Moschus cupreus
Kashmir musk deer is a mammal in the family Moschidae (order Artiodactyla) — Moschus cupreus, recorded as Endangered.
The mammal
It stands at 60 cm (24 in) tall, and only males have tusks that they use during mating season to compete for females.
Range and habitat
The Kashmir musk deer is an endangered species of musk deer native to Afghanistan, India, Nepal and Pakistan. In summer, it inhabits remote alpine scrub on scattered rock outcrops and in upper fringes of closed coniferous forests at an elevation of 3,000–3,500 m (9,800–11,500 ft) using invariably use steep slopes (≥ 20°). It is endangered due to habitat loss and also because of poachers hunting the animal for its prized scent glands.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
In crisis
In June 2009, three individuals were detected in the Nuristan Province, showing that it still persists in the country despite unregulated hunting, extensive deforestation, habitat degradation, and the absence of the rule of law. Other than poaching, human activity also impacts the Kashmir musk deer population because livestock grazing, urban expansion, and the collection of wood damage the montane habitat.
CITES lists this taxon on Appendix I. Confirm the current appendix on the CITES checklist.
Kashmir musk deer is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Kashmir musk deer, Wikidata item Q2326479. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
