Colophon

The animal on the cover of MapReduce Design Patterns is Père David’s deer or the Chinese Elaphur (Elaphurus davidianus). It is originally from China, and in the 19th century the Emperor of China kept all Père David’s deer in special hunting grounds. However, at the turn of the century, the remaining population in the hunting grounds were killed in a number of natural and man-made events, making the deer extinct in China. Since Père David, a zoologist and botanist, spirited a few away during the 19th century for study, the deer survives today in numbers of over 2,000.

Père David’s deer grow to be a little over 2 meters in length, and 1.2 meters tall. Its coat ranges from reddish in the summer to grey in the winter. Père David’s deer is considered a semiaquatic animal, as it enjoys swimming. The deer eats grass and aquatic plants.