What is the maximal age a Water deer reaches?
An adult Water deer (Hydropotes inermis) usually gets as old as 12 years.
Water deers are around 175 days in the womb of their mother. When born, they weight 1.02 kg (2.24 lbs) and measure 8.5 cm (0′ 4″). As a member of the Cervidae family (genus: Hydropotes), their offspring is 3 babies per pregnancy. Fully grown, they reach a bodylength of 27.5 cm (0′ 11″).
As a reference: Usually, humans get as old as 100 years, with the average being around 75 years. After being carried in the belly of their mother for 280 days (40 weeks), they grow to an average size of 1.65m (5′ 5″) and weight in at 62 kg (137 lbs), which is obviously highly individual.
The water deer (Hydropotes inermis) is a small deer superficially more similar to a musk deer than a true deer. Native to China and Korea, there are two subspecies: the Chinese water deer (Hydropotes inermis inermis) and the Korean water deer (Hydropotes inermis argyropus). Despite its lack of antlers and certain other anatomical anomalies—including a pair of prominent tusks (downward-pointing canine teeth), it is classified as a cervid. Its unique anatomical characteristics have caused it to be classified in its own genus (Hydropotes) as well as its own subfamily (Hydropotinae). However, studies of mitochondrial control region and cytochrome b DNA sequences placed it near Capreolus within an Old World section of the subfamily Capreolinae. Its prominent tusks (elongated canines), similar to those of musk deer, have led to both being colloquially named vampire deer in English-speaking areas to which they have been imported. The species is listed as vulnerable by the IUCN. It was first described by Robert Swinhoe in 1870.
Animals of the same family as a Water deer
Not really brothers and sisters, but from the same biological family (Cervidae):
- Roe deer becoming 17 years old
- Reeves’s muntjac with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Chital becoming 20.75 years old
- Gray brocket becoming 12 years old
- Mule deer becoming 22 years old
- Pampas deer with 1 babies per pregnancy
- Mérida brocket growing to a mass of 16.5 kgs (36.38 lbs)
- Taruca becoming 10.58 years old
- Red brocket becoming 13.75 years old
- Père David’s deer becoming 23.25 years old
Animals that reach the same age as Water deer
With an average age of 12 years, Water deer are in good companionship of the following animals:
- Cape grysbok usually reaching 14 years
- Red-fronted gazelle usually reaching 13.5 years
- Waterhouse’s leaf-nosed bat usually reaching 10.42 years
- Gray brocket usually reaching 12 years
- Northern flying squirrel usually reaching 13 years
- Jaguarundi usually reaching 10.58 years
- Desert rat-kangaroo usually reaching 13 years
- Jungle cat usually reaching 12 years
- Southern tree hyrax usually reaching 10 years
- Pampas fox usually reaching 13.67 years
Animals with the same number of babies Water deer
The same number of babies at once (3) are born by:
- Dusky hopping mouse
- Hooper’s mouse
- Oryzomys couesi
- Small Japanese mole
- Woodland dormouse
- Damaraland mole-rat
- Sado mole
- Yellow-throated marten
- Lesser gray-brown musk shrew
- Thick-tailed three-toed jerboa
Weighting as much as Water deer
A fully grown Water deer reaches around 12.73 kg (28.06 lbs). So do these animals:
- Red forest duiker weighting 12.36 kilos (27.25 lbs) on average
- Wolverine weighting 12.8 kilos (28.22 lbs) on average
- Pacarana weighting 12.5 kilos (27.56 lbs) on average
- Siamang weighting 10.84 kilos (23.9 lbs) on average
- Indian crested porcupine weighting 14.3 kilos (31.53 lbs) on average
- Caracal weighting 11.98 kilos (26.41 lbs) on average
- Swamp wallaby weighting 15 kilos (33.07 lbs) on average
- Pygathrix bieti weighting 11 kilos (24.25 lbs) on average
- Bennett’s tree-kangaroo weighting 10.48 kilos (23.1 lbs) on average
- Ethiopian wolf weighting 14.38 kilos (31.7 lbs) on average