Milu

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A large deer native to China, also known as Père David's deer, that was nearly extinct in the wild before being preserved
2. The Chinese species of deer known as Père David's deer, notable for its long tail and hooves shaped like a cow's
3. A rare hoofed mammal of the deer family, originally from eastern Asia, that survives today largely in protected herds

Etymology: The name comes from the Chinese "mílù" (麋鹿), where "lù" means deer and "mí" names a large deer-like animal. The English word is simply that Chinese name written in pinyin, though the animal is better known in English as Père David's deer. It was named after Armand David, a French missionary and naturalist who was shown the animals in the imperial hunting park near Peking (now Beijing) and sent specimens to Europe, where scientists first described them. The deer was already gone from the wild in China by the early twentieth century. The only survivors were a herd kept at Woburn Abbey in England by the Duke of Bedford, and the species was later brought back to China from those animals, with reintroductions to protected reserves in the decades since.