Moschus chrysogaster (Hodgson, 1839)

Peter Grubb, 1993, Order Artiodactyla, Mammal Species of the World (2 nd Edition), Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, pp. 377-414 : 383-384

Moschus chrysogaster (Hodgson, 1839) . J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal, 8:203.

TYPE LOCALITY: " Nepal " (Probably Tibetan Plateau) .

DISTRIBUTION: Himalayas of N Afghanistan, N Pakistan, N India (incl. Sikkim), and Nepal; C Tibet to C China.

STATUS: CITES - Appendix I in Afghanistan, Bhutan, India, Nepal, and Pakistan; otherwise Appendix II; U.S. ESA - Endangered in Afghanistan, Bhutan, China (Yunnan and Tibet), India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sikkim.

SYNONYMS: cupreus , leucogaster , sifanicus.

COMMENTS: A well defined species; see both Groves (1976) and Gao (1963), under the name sifanicus. The name sifanicus should be included in M. chrysogaster , but " chrysogaster " of Cai and Feng (1981) is subspecifically or specifically distinct. Available name for this taxon may be leucogaster Hodgson, 1839 ; see Grubb (1982a). Groves and Grubb (1987) provisionally treated leucogaster as a species; Grubb (1990) listed it as a Himalayan subspecies-group of M. chrysogaster .