A Black Muntjac Gets to Complain

    A black muntjac gets to complain about the disaster caused by the loss of ecological balance.

    The moment I got home from work, Ms. Li came up saying:
    “A black muntjac ran into the deputy county magistrate’s house.”
    No doubt she spotted my stunned and dazed facial expression, adding with emphasis:
    “A black muntjac broke into the house of the deputy magistrate of S County of Huangshan! A black muntjac!”
    Black muntjacs are a kind of unique and rare animal living in the Mt. Huangshan region of Anhui province and the west of Zhejiang province. It’s endemic to China, and under the country’s first degree protection for rare species.
    “To complain? In the deputy magistrate’s?” I heckled jokingly. There came a certain answer:
    “Yes! You hit the nail right on the head! The newspaper is on the table.”
    I picked up the newspaper promptly. There’s the striking headline on the front page: A Black Muntjac Gets to Complain. It reports that one evening two days ago a black muntjac suddenly broke into a deputy magistrate’s home. The deputy magistrate, who had just come home from work, heard the family screaming andimmediately came out to find out what’s happening.
    It was a black muntjac with blood all over, trying to hide itself in the living room, out of breath. The deputy magistrate phoned the Wild Animal Protection Station while he told the family to shut the door and stay away from the black muntjac.
    Before long, staff members from the Protection Station arrived. By that time, the black muntjac was leaning against the sofa, staggering, and short of breath. Mr. Wang, an engineer from the Protection Station, approached it with care, gently reached out and got hold of it, and then had the black muntjac tamely lie in his arms.
    According to Wang’s preliminary examination, the black muntjac had three wounds in its hind legs and hips, with the one in the hips being the largest and deepest. The wounds could tell that it had been attacked by jackals before it ran into the residential area by instinct to seek for protection from human beings.
According to zoologists, originally animals and human beings are friends. When a vulnerable animal gets into danger, this memory will be often activated in the genetic code, so that it would turn to humans for friendly protection.
    Black muntjacs are a kind of rare and valuable animal under the country’s first degree protection. They live in forests of evergreen broad-leaf and deciduous evergreen broad-leaf trees, 600 to 1200 meters above sea level, enjoying the fine environment of close canopy and moist ground with many shade tolerant plants and abundant food sources.
    So why did this black muntjac suddenly turn up in lower mountains at this time of year and get attacked by jackals?