ORDER ARTIODACTYLA : EVEN -TOED UNGULATES 451 



A very large number of females and young are also killed annually. In 

 addition to human hunters, a persistent enemy of the wapiti is a species of 

 wild dog called tsaikou [Cuon alpinus], . . . 



I saw only three stags .... 



They are found in the Minshan Mountains over an area of about fifty by 

 twenty-five miles. They do not extend to the north, east or west, but are said 

 to exist to the south beyond the mountains. 



They are kept in captivity by the Chinese, who saw the horns off annually 

 when they are in the velvet. Many of these animals are in a wretched con- 

 dition, being haltered to a stall. 



Altai Wapiti. Maralhirsch (Ger.). Maral (Russ.) 



CERVUS ELAPHUS ASIATICUS Lydekker 



[Cervus maral} Vau. asiatica Severtzov, Izviestia Imper. Obshchestvo Liub. 



Estest., Antrop. Etnogr. [Moscow], vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 109, 1873 (nomen 



nudum). 

 Cervus canadensis asiaticus Lydekker, Deer of All Lands, p. 104, pi. 6, 1898. 



("The Altai and Thian-Shan Mountains"; type locality restricted by 



G. M. Allen (1930, p. 17) to "the district to the southward of Lake 



Teletsk, near the sources of the Yenisei." This lake is actually on the 



Bija River, one of the headwaters of the Ob.) 

 SYNONYMS: ICervus wachei Noack (1902); Cervus biedermanni Matschie 



(1907); Cervus canadensis baicalensis Lydekker (1915). 

 FIGS.: Lydekker, 18986, pi. 6 and p. 106, fig. 27; Elwes, 1899, pp. 31-32, figs.; 



Demidoff, 1900, pp. 50-53, figs.; Lydekker, 1901, pp. 68-69, figs. 17, 18. 



The Altai Wapiti was evidently common three-quarters of a 

 century ago but had become scarce by 1898 and has now, over the 

 greater part of its range, seriously dwindled in numbers in a wild 

 state, although many are maintained in domestication. The range 

 of asiaticus will be provisionally considered to extend from the 

 Altai to the Baikal region, including the Tannu-Ola and Sayan 

 Mountains and the upper Yenisei and Irtish Basins. 



The Altai Wapiti is somewhat lighter in color and perhaps 

 smaller than that of the Tian Shan (Severtzoff , 1876, p. 377) . The 

 antlers of the former are less stout and lighter in color, and have 

 the fourth tine inclining outward instead of inward; backward 

 inclination of the beam less marked; only one large tine (the fourth) 

 on the front surface of the upper half of the beam (Lydekker, 1915, 

 vol. 4, p. 135) . The record length of the antlers on the outside curve 

 is 50f inches (Ward, 1935, p. 3) . Height at shoulder, about 5 feet 

 (Lydekker, 18986, p. 108). 



Pallas (1811, vol. 1, p. 217) extended the Wapiti's range as far 

 as the headwaters of the Lena and the Vitim. 



According to Radde (1862, p. 285), it was often met with up to 

 1858 in the eastern Sayan Mountains, about the sources of the 

 Dshida, the Irkut, and the western Oka. But by the next year it 

 had been largely driven from these areas by the Siberian Wild Dog 

 (Cuon alpinus) . 



