A New Northernmost Currently Confirmed Record of the Chinese Water Deer Hydropotes Inermis in Northeast Asia from an Urban Campus in Jiamusi, China

We report an adult male Chinese water deer Hydropotes inermis repeatedly observed at Jiamusi University, Heilongjiang Province, northeastern China (130°22′02″ E, 46°46′56″ N). Clear photographs documented diagnostic external characters, and fecal samples collected from the same campus area were independently assigned to H. inermis by mitochondrial 16S rRNA sequencing. The locality lies approximately 208 km north of the Wuchang record in terms of latitudinal displacement and represents the northernmost currently confirmed occurrence of the species in its native Northeast Asian range. Repeated use of a university campus with regular pedestrian and vehicle activity suggests apparent tolerance of routine human presence within a human-modified setting, although the observations do not demonstrate urban adaptation, local population establishment, or the provenance of the individual.