Serows, Sika deer to be swapped for pandas

“While we are planning to mate Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan, we will select the best of the serows and deer we keep,” zoo research officer Chao Ming-chieh said yesterday.

The two cuddly animals will arrive in Taiwan next month. Tuan and Yuan, combined, mean “(family) union.” It refers to hopes for a unification of mainland China and Taiwan, which is considered by Beijing as a family reunion.

“We should breed giant pandas,” Chao said. It’s something the recipient zoo of the rare animals do under international agreements, he added

Most likely, the giant pandas won’t mate. Artificial insemination is necessary. If twins were born, one of them might have to be nursed by zoo keepers.

Chao said Tuan Tuan and Yuan Yuan have ID chips implanted. Tuan Tuan’s ID number is 000676C588. His birth date is September 1, 2004. His pedigree number is 588. His sire is identified as Ling Ling and mother Hua Mei.

Yuan Yuan’s pedigree number is 587. She was born on August 30, 2004. Her sire is Lin Lin and mother Lei Lei. Her ID number is 000676D350.

The Formosan serow (Capricornis swinhoei) is a distinct species indigenous to Taiwan. It was discovered by the West by Robert Swinhoe, the first British vice consul in Taiwan in the 1860s. That’s why the last word in the academic terminology for it is “swinhoei.”

Few specific body measurements have been made for Capricornis swinhoei. It is the smallest member of the Capricornis.

The head and body lengths are around 80 and 114 centimeters. It weighs around 30 kilograms. It has short horns which never fall off. It jumps high and fast. One jump may exceed three meters.

Because of that jumping capability, the Formosan serow is also called “Formosan antelope.”

At present 34 of them are kept at the zoo at Muzha. Seven kids (as baby deer is called) were born at the zoo this year.

“Two of the kids will be given to China,” Chao said.

The Sika deer (Cervus nippon) is a member of the deer family Cervidae that inhabits much of East Asia. It is also native to Taiwan.

It is rather large for an island animal being larger than Kerama Sika deer and similar in size to deer from southern China.

There are several geographically separated subspecies, but due to the long history of the velvet antler trade for medicinal values and farming, the integrity of these subspecies is questionable as many populations have already mixed gene pools.

In Taiwan, both Formosan Sika deer and Formosan Sambar deer (Cervus unicolor swinhoei) have been farmed for velvet antlers, which are considered an aphrodisiac.

Few Sika deer exist in the wild in Taiwan. “We’ll choose a pair — not too closely related — and send them to China in exchange for the giant pandas,” Chao said.

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