Males and females are similarly sized, between 70 and 100 cm in length and 10 and 15 kg in weight, and generally have thick brown hair.

Upper canine teeth in males form sabers that can extend past the jaw, but not in females.

[3] The black musk deer is nocturnal, and most of their activities take place at night, dawn and dusk.

[4] Living in the mountainous areas that have gorges and forests, these agile deer possess the ability to climb trees and move freely even at the dangerous edge of a cliff or in the very thick bushes.

In addition to low growls, these deer may attack their opponents with their tusks and strong fore hooves.

Some studies show that up to 43% of the diet of some lynx may consist of black musk deer.

[3][6][7] Black musk deer have mating periods beginning in late November into December, lasting roughly one month.

Even the black musk deer, although only endangered, its lack of species numbers has a detrimental effect on the environment in which it lives and the food web in which it participates.

Because they are hunted by humans and other animals such as the wolverine, lynx, and yellow-throated marten, their numbers have been greatly reduced, so they are now on the endangered species list.

At one point in the 1980s, the musk of the adult male deer was worth four times its weight in gold.