Mammalia 2014; aop Short Note Joelene Hughes*, Justine Alexander, Kun Shi and Philip Riordan Confirmation of threatened white-lipped deer ( Przewalskium albirostris) in Gansu and Sichuan, China, and their overlap with livestock Abstract: In the last few decades China has undergone significant socio-economic changes, with potential nega- tive implications for wildlife populations, particularly large mammals in rural areas, due to development and expansion of agricultural practices. White-lipped deer ( Przewalskium albirostris Przewalski, 1883), endemic to China and listed as Vulnerable by the IUCN, have never been formally surveyed and the majority of observations were documented over 25 years ago. This oversight raises the question of whether white-lipped deer populations per- sist, especially at the edges of their global range. We docu- ment recent observations of white-lipped deer in Gansu and Sichuan, at the northern and southern limits of their cur- rently accepted global range. Furthermore, analysis of fae- cal distribution across the landscape in Sichuan showed that the white-lipped deer overlap with domestic livestock, leading to the potential for resource competition between the wild and domestic ungulates. Comprehensive distribu- tion surveys are required throughout China to aid successful conservation action for the threatened white-lipped deer. Keywords: alpine; China; competition; distribution; ungulate. DOI 10.1515/mammalia-2014-0038 Received March 28, 2014; accepted June 12, 2014 The white-lipped deer ( Przewalskium albirostris Przewalski, 1883) is a large ungulate species endemic to the high-altitude grasslands of the eastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau (QTP) and surrounding mountain ranges in China (Leslie 2010). First recorded in the late 19th century by Colonel Nicholas Prze- walski and W.G. Thorold in Gansu and Tibet, respectively (Schaller 1998), the extant population is now thought to be reduced to 10% of its historic range (Koizumi et al. 1993). One of six ungulate species endemic to China and one of the 12 threatened large herbivore species of the QTP (Mallon and Jiang 2009), the species is classed as Vulnerable by the IUCN and a Class I protected species in China (Harris 2008, Smith and Xie 2008). It is considered threatened due to historic over-exploitation, grazing competition with livestock and habitat degradation (Koizumi et al. 1993 , Harris 2008). Published records of white-lipped deer primarily refer to observations made over 25 years ago, with the most recent over 10 years ago in 2002 (Harris and Loggers 2004). Over a similar time period the economic growth, develop- ment and legislation in China have dramatically altered the physical and political landscape within which China’s wildlife exists (He 2009, Xu et al. 2012) with changes, such as rural development and designation of protected areas, potentially altering the landscape in which species persist. It is, therefore, necessary to re-evaluate the dis- tribution of species, such as the white-lipped deer, which have never been formally surveyed, to enhance conserva- tion efforts (Leslie 2010). The global population of the white-lipped deer is thought to be fragmented across five provinces in China (Leslie 2010). The southern-most boundary of their global range extends westwards from the Longmen Shan in west Sichuan, whereas the notional northern limit is in the Qilian mountains on the southern border of Gansu. Recent indications suggest that white-lipped deer populations may be increasing (Harris and Loggers 2004, Leslie 2010), however, little is known about their current distribution. The last published observations of white-lipped deer in Sichuan were made in 1990 (Kaji et al. 1993) and in Gansu *Corresponding author: Joelene Hughes, WildCRU, Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, UK, e-mail: joelene.hughes@zoo.ox.ac.uk Justine Alexander and Kun Shi: Wildlife Institute, College of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, 35, Tsinghua-East Road, Beijing 100083, China Philip Riordan: Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Recanati-Kaplan Centre, Tubney House, Abingdon Road, Tubney, Oxfordshire, OX13 5QL, UK; and Wildlife Institute, College of Nature Conservation, Beijing Forestry University, 35, Tsinghua-East Road, Beijing 100083, China Brought to you by | Oxford University Authenticated Download Date | 4/1/15 12:43 PM