Critically Endangered
Around the World in 80 Days - Day 36
Alright, I'm kind of cheating. Our journey with Phileas Fogg has already passed by Vietnam and Laos where this deer lives. In fact I neglected to mention that yesterday we tried to catch a steamer to Yokohama but it left early and we missed it, so now we are on a different steamer heading to Shanghai. I just really wanted to do another mammal since they are so rare on this trip, especially large mammals. These are not a large deer, though at 60-110 pounds they are the largest of all the Muntjac species. The smallest is just 30 pounds on average, the size of a none-too-large dog. They are prey for tigers and leopards, but unfortunately the biggest threat is people. Typically they are caught in wire snares. Over the course of only 6 years, more than 100,000 wire snares were removed from just 2 nature reserves in Vietnam. It really is a big threat to this species as well as others. These deer were discovered in 1994. Typical sightings are either because someone has trophy antlers, or they are caught with a photo trap. Because of how elusive and little known they are, it appears that there are no real estimates for their population numbers. There are none in captivity either. Camera traps are not known for producing clear quality pictures, and the only ones I could clearly see the faces of were females. Other Muntjac have what look like fangs, just elongated teeth though. The females are not as extreme as the males and are typically covered by their lips. All descriptions I read said nothing about these being abnormal and not having the elongated teeth, so I chose to give this guy a small "fang". I cannot say for certain they have them, but I cannot also say they do not.
Well that's it, I've done 2/3 of a whole year now with this project. As I mentioned at least once before, I will be doing 366 days of paintings since 2020 was a leap year. I am going to start raising funds in order to be able to frame all the paintings. I have had it suggested to me that I try to get my paintings set up at the next CITES CoP. I also need to frame them for any show I will be able to do. There is no way I can afford it on my own, unless I wait a couple years to get them done gradually. I do hate asking for money from anyone, but I want to have as many people as possible learn about all these animals. I also want to eventually sell the paintings in order to raise money to help protect these animals too. So, I have set up a site at "Buy Me a Coffee". I chose that rather than going to Patreon because people do not have to set up an account with the site in order to donate. I have it set to where the automatic donation amount is just $2.00 because I felt that would be an amount that many people would be able to donate without feeling it was a hardship. That much certainly won't get even one painting framed, but every little bit will help! I will soon be setting up a donation tab up above in the navigation, but I am introducing it to you here right now. If you would like to help me get a step closer to framing these paintings so that they can be viewed in person, follow the link below. I greatly appreciate any help you are able to give.