Reeves's Muntjac (Muntiacus reevesi) lives in eastern Asian forests across Southeast China and Taiwan. It feeds on leaves and twigs. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
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A real field recording of the Reeves's Muntjac, made in the wild.
Male Reeves's muntjacs settle disputes by first using their short antlers, usually ten centimetres or less, to shove an opponent off balance. Once the rival is destabilised, the attacker snaps forward with its long upper canine teeth, which are about five point one centimetres long, to inflict a wound.
England's introduced muntjac numbers doubled over a thirteen-year span, rising from an estimated fifty-two thousand individuals in 1995 to one hundred and four thousand by 2008. Subsequent legislation, including the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981 and the Invasive Alien Species (Enforcement and Permitting) Order 2019, made it illegal to release, recapture or transport the species.
In Japan, a handful of Reeves's muntjacs that escaped from a Chiba Prefecture zoo before the 1980s have multiplied to seventy-one thousand five hundred by 2023, classifying them as a serious invasive pest. Their foraging has caused severe damage to local ashitaba plantations, threatening agricultural productivity. The rapid increase underscores the species' ability to thrive in new environments once a small founding population establishes itself.
Reeves's muntjac is popularly known as the "barking deer" because it produces a sharp bark that can be heard in the forest. The bark is most frequently heard when the animal is courting a mate or when it feels threatened, acting as an audible warning to rivals. Although this nickname is shared with other muntjac species, it remains a distinctive behavioural trait of this deer, signalling its emotional state to others nearby.
Since 2016 the Reeves's muntjac has been placed on the European Union's Invasive Alien Species of Union concern list, a status that triggers strict legal safeguards. This designation means the animal may not be imported, bred, transported, commercialised or deliberately released anywhere within the EU, preventing further spread. The rule applies uniformly across all member states, ensuring coordinated management of this potentially invasive mammal.
Sources
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In the dappled shadows of the forest, the Reeves's Muntjac moves with a quiet, unassuming elegance, its large brown eyes watchful and alert as it navigates the underbrush with a delicate, almost ethereal tread. With a coat of reddish-brown fur and a pair of slender, branching antlers, this diminutive deer is a master of subtlety, blending seamlessly into its surroundings as it searches for the tender shoots and leaves that sustain it. As it glides effortlessly through the forest, its very presence seems to embody the gentle, unhurried pulse of the natural world.
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