NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Chinese Water Deer
Hydropotes inermis Swinhoe, 1870
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
The water deer (Hydropotes inermis) is a small deer species native to Korea and China. It has prominent tusks, unlike all other living true deer. It was first described to the Western world by Robert Swinhoe in 1870.
Wikipedia contributors, Water deer; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T08:11:48.002822+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Hydropotes inermis Swinhoe, 1870
- Name authority
- Swinhoe, 1870
- Common name
- Chinese Water Deer
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Mammalia
- Order
- Artiodactyla
- Family
- Cervidae
- Genus
- Hydropotes
- Extinction status
- Recorded extant
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
- subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
- infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
- orderArtiodactyla Owen, 1848
- familyCervidae Goldfuss, 1820
- subfamilyCapreolinae Brookes, 1828
- tribeCapreolini Brookes, 1828
- genusHydropotes Swinhoe, 1870
- speciesHydropotes inermis Swinhoe, 1870
Close classified relatives
No other member of this genus is present in the selected snapshot.
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Southern Asia
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=625054 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:6MJGG. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.