Feeding habits of Hainan eldi’s deer

Hainan eldi’s deer is a precious species of deer in the tropic zone, it is regarded as the first-class animal under protection in China. Based on all-year-round observation on the deer’s feeding habit in the reserve from 1985 to 1988, we discovered that Hainan eldi’s deer is a euryphangous herbivore. They take various herbs as their main food and have fairly strong selectivity for woody plants, especially tending to cat the tender parts of plants and some fruits and flowers. Like other species of deer, they also like to lick the alkaline soil. This paper reports the research and evaluation on the feeding and choosing food characteristics of Hainan eldi’s deer, and on the palatability of the main plants in the reserve.