Barasinghas
| Barasinghas | ||||||||||||
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Barasingha ( Rucervus ) |
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| Rucervus | ||||||||||||
| Hodgson , 1838 |
The barasinghas or group deer ( Rucervus ) are a genus of mammals from the family of the deer (Cervidae) living in India . They are sometimes referred to as "swamp deer" - this name should, however, be reserved for the South American swamp deer ( Blastocerus ), which is not related to the Barasinghas. The name Barasingha, a word from Hindi , means "twelve horns" and refers to the strongly angled antlers, which often have twelve, but also up to 14 ends.
features
Barasinghas are slim deer with a head-torso length of around 180 centimeters, a shoulder height of 120 centimeters and a weight of 170 to 180 kilograms. They are mostly monochrome brown, with only the white underside of the tail contrasting. Males are darker than females. Some populations have pale spots on their fur; however, these are exceptions. The hooves of these deer are widened to adapt to swampy ground to prevent the animal from sinking in.
The summer coat of the Barashinghas is a bright reddish brown. The side of the body and the hair on the stomach are a little lighter. The throat, the chin, the inside of the barrel and the underside of the tail are white. The sides of the body are spotted white. These spots are clearly visible in the summer dress, but only very indistinctly in the dark gray winter dress. Adult males of the Barasinghas have dark, long hair on their necks in their winter plumage.
Young male barasinghas have rose bushes - elongated frontal bones - even before they are six months old. At the age of one and a half, they have two antlers, which are usually not yet angled. Your next antler already has several antlers. The longest antlers of a barasingha measured so far measured 1.04 meters. The antlers of older males are strongly pointed and can have up to fourteen ends. In central India, barasinghas usually shed their antlers in May and June, while in northern India and Nepal they shed in March. Male animals immediately start pushing antlers.
Barasinghas are excellent swimmers; their large hooves prevent them from sinking into damp soil. Fleeing barasinghas reach a speed of 56 km / h and also show bounce jumps , as they typically occur in antelopes. However, these can also be observed in fallow deer . Barasinghas, however, do not show more than ten to twelve bouncing jumps in a row, because this is a very strenuous form of locomotion.
Vocalizations
As is typical for deer species that predominantly live in the open countryside, the Barashingas are very fond of shouting. The alarming sound of the animals is a high-pitched bark that they utter as soon as they discover a danger. Other barasinghas also respond by barking and these utterances can often be heard for over twenty minutes by a troubled pack.
During the rut, the deer make a series of dark, melodic calls that attract the females' attention and challenge other males. The females call for their calves with a high-pitched, yapping sound. The calves respond with a high Maaa .
distribution and habitat
The Barasinghas are native to the northern half of India and parts of Nepal . They were once widespread in all flood plains of the major river systems from the Indus to Assam , but their range has now shrunk considerably (see subspecies ). Two of the three species are swamp and marshland inhabitants, but the highland Barasingha prefers light forests and dry meadows. Basically, Barasinghas stay near wetlands. They go into the water to cool off and to avoid predators.
Way of life
Barasinghas almost exclusively graze grass, they also eat leaves. They prefer to go to the forest during the hottest time of the day to look for shade.
As a species that predominantly occur in open terrain, Barasinghas form large herds. Today herds consist of fifteen to twenty animals, but in the past they could contain several hundred individuals. It is unusual for socially living deer that the males are not on the periphery of the pack. Males have a clear hierarchy and dominant males have the privilege of mating with the females in the herd. The males fight for this privilege, but in principle the males of the Barasinghas are less aggressive animals than other herd animals.
These deer can be diurnal as well as nocturnal.
Reproduction
The mating season extends from September to April, but the peak for inland India is in December and January. In northern India and Nepal, the peak of the rut falls in November. During the rut, male barasinghas often forge the ground and tear it open with their antlers. They scratch shallow rutting hollows into which they urinate. You then wallow in it. Males of the Barasinghas often rub their pre-eye glands on higher plants and leave their scent marks there. Dominant barasinghas often raise their snouts high, with their necks stretched up as far as possible. This is how they demonstrate their white throat patch. The higher the head is carried, the more dominant a male is within a pack. Direct fights with competitors are rare. At the height of the rut, the adult males attempt to assemble a harem around themselves. If one of the females is ready to conceive, the male will stay near him until he has successfully mated. Other males are tolerated in the vicinity of the harem, only the female animal that is in the oestrus is kept away from others by the male. The males therefore spend less energy during the rutting season than deer species, which react more aggressively to other males, and accordingly lose less weight.
After a gestation period of 240 to 250 days, the female usually gives birth to a single young. The setting time is not synchronized because the females are ready to conceive at different times. Young animals weigh between 9 and 11 kilograms after birth and have a heavily spotted coat. Young animals remain motionless in cover for the first few days of life, the female only comes to them to suckle. However, it stays close to the young animal. After two to three weeks, the young animal is able to follow the mother animal. This then joins the pack again with its offspring. The young animal is weaned after six to eight months and is sexually mature at 16 months of age.
Predators, Diseases, and Life Expectancy
The tiger is the most important predator of the Barasinghas. Both prefer the same habitat, so that encounters between the animals are still frequent. Pythons also eat calves when the opportunity presents itself.
According to Leonard Lee Rue, the greatest threat to the Barasinghas comes from brucellosis ; especially those of the cattle type are transferred to this deer species. Whole packs have died from it in the past. In another case, Barasinghas were so weakened by this disease that additional other stressors led to a high mortality rate.
Barasinghas held in human care could reach an age of up to 23 years.
threat
The former range has been greatly reduced by hunting and destruction of the habitat. The Barasinghas as a whole are classified as endangered ( vulnerable ) by the IUCN .
Systematics
The Barasinghas form a genus within the deer family (Cervidae). The genus Rucervus used to include the lyre deer ( Panolia ). Molecular genetic but studies indicate that the Barasinghas closer to the Axishirschen ( Axis ) but that Eld's Deer with the red deer ( Cervus are related). For this reason, the lyre deer were excluded from the genus Rucervus and moved to the genus Panolia .
There are usually three types of barasingha:
- Highland Barasingha or Middle Indian Barasingha ( Rucervus branderi Pocock , 1943) from Madhya Pradesh lives, unlike the other species, in wooded areas with solid ground. After the population had fallen to less than a hundred in the 1970s, protective measures in Kanha National Park increased the population to 400 animals again. The subspecies is considered critically endangered.
- Lowland Barasingha or North Indian Barasingha ( Rucervus duvaucelii ( G. Cuvier , 1823)) used to be native to the plains of Ganges and Brahmaputra in their thousands . The populations in India and Nepal have now declined so much that the IUCN has classified the species as endangered. There are still larger stocks in Dudhwa National Park . In Nepal, the lowland barasingha still occurs in the Bardia National Park and the Suklaphanta Wildlife Reserve . The scientific name of the species honors the French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel .
- Assam-Barasingha ( Rucervus ranjitsinhi ( Groves , 1982)) is classified as critically endangered by the IUCN. A few hundred animals live exclusively in the Kaziranga National Park and the Manas Tiger Reserve in Assam .
The eradicated Schomburgk deer ( Rucervus schomburgki ) was sometimes placed in its own genus Thaocervus , but genetic studies see it as a sister form of the other Barasinghas.
literature
- Colin Groves and Peter Grubb: Ungulate Taxonomy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 1–317 (SS 71–107)
- Ronald M. Nowak: Walker's Mammals of the World . Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999 ISBN 0801857899
- Leonard Lee Rue III: The Encyclopedia of Deer . Voyageur Press, Stillwater 2003, ISBN 0-89658-590-5
- Tej Kumar Shrestha: Wildlife of Nepal - A Study of Renewable Resources of Nepal Himalayas. Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 2003, ISBN 99933-59-02-5
- Don E. Wilson, DeeAnn M. Reeder (Eds.): Mammal Species of the World . 3rd edition. The Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2005, ISBN 0-8018-8221-4 .
Single receipts
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i j k Leonard Lee Rue III: The Encyclopedia of Deer . Voyageur Press, Stillwater 2003, ISBN 0-89658-590-5 , pp. 51-53
- ↑ Clément Gilbert, Anne Ropiquet and Alexandre Hassanin: Mitochondrial and nuclear phylogenies of Cervidae (Mammalia, Ruminantia): Systematics, morphology, and biogeography. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40, 2006, pp 101-117
- ^ A b c Colin Groves and Peter Grubb: Ungulate Taxonomy. Johns Hopkins University Press, 2011, pp. 1–317 (SS 71–107)
- ↑ Shrestha, p. 205
- ^ Christian Pitra, Joerns Fickel, Erik Meijaard, and P. Colin Groves: Evolution and phylogeny of old world deer. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33, 2004, pp. 880-895
Web links
- Distribution map and further information
- Rucervus duvaucelii in the endangered Red List species the IUCN 2006. Posted by: Deer Specialist Group, 1996. Accessed on 12/05/2006.