Moschus leucogaster Hodgson 1839

Moschus leucogaster Hodgson 1839, J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 8: 203.

Type Locality: "Cis and Trans Hemelayan regions"; "lofty mountains of the interior of Tibet... On the Tibetan slopes of the Himanchal, Saturatus chiefly resides...I have specimens of all three species [ chrysogaster, leucogaster, saturatus] from Lassa and Digurchee, whilst my garden is seldom deprived of the ornament of several live families of the Saturatus of the Kachar [Alpine life-zone]" (Hodgson, 1842, J. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, 6:285) (Nepal, Himalayas) .

Vernacular Names: Himalayan Musk Deer.

Synonyms: Moschus cacharensis Lydekker 1915; Moschus saturatus Hodgson 1839; Moschus zhangmu Groves, Wang and Grubb 1995 .

Distribution: Himalayas of Bhutan, N India (incl. Sikkim), and Nepal.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I; ESA – Endangered; IUCN – Lower Risk (nt) as M. chrysogaster leucogaster .

Discussion: Groves and Grubb (1987) and Groves et al. (1995) treated leucogaster as a separate species from M. chrysogaster, from which it differs in skull proportions; Grubb (1990) listed it as a Himalayan subspecies-group of M. chrysogaster .