Pig deer

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Pig deer
Front Indian pig deer (A. p. Porcinus) in Kaziranga National Park

Front Indian pig deer ( A. p. Porcinus ) in Kaziranga National Park

Systematics
without rank: Forehead weapon bearer (Pecora)
Family : Deer (Cervidae)
Subfamily : Cervinae
Tribe : Real deer (Cervini)
Genre : Axis deer ( Axis )
Type : Pig deer
Scientific name
Axis porcinus
( Zimmermann , 1780)
Distribution area of ​​the pig deer

The pig deer ( Axis porcinus ) is a deer widespread in South and Southeast Asia . It is named after the way he walks through the undergrowth with his head bowed instead of jumping over obstacles like other deer.

features

Pig deer pair (preparations)

Pig deer are similar to axis deer, but with shorter legs. Your patchwork dress is less dense and rich in contrast. Males are darker in color than females. With a head body length of 110 cm and a body height of 70 cm, they can weigh 50 kg. A hog deer is thus on average a little smaller than a deer , but significantly heavier and stockier.

During the winter months, the fur is brown to dark brown, while in summer it is gray-brown. The fawns of the pig deer have, like many other deer species, a fur with white spots.

distribution

The range of the pig deer extends from the east of Pakistan through the north of India , Myanmar , Thailand , Laos and Cambodia to Vietnam . Habitat are dense forests, but pig deer can often be seen at the edge of the forest, even in open terrain.

The hog deer was also introduced by humans to numerous regions of the world in which it was not originally native, such as the southern USA , Hawaii , Australia ( Victoria ) and Sri Lanka .

Way of life

Pig deer are usually solitary animals. Females and young animals sometimes get together in small associations. If the food supply is favorable, hog deer of both sexes can come together in large groups on forage meadows without the individual animals becoming aggressive towards one another. During the heat season, however, sexually mature males become territorial and try to win a female by fighting.

Subspecies

Depending on the doctrine, a distinction is made between two to five subspecies. The first two are not in doubt, the third was created by human introduction and not naturally, and the fourth and fifth are mostly (as is the case here) regarded as separate species.

  • The front Indian hog deer ( Axis porcinus porcinus ) is widespread from Pakistan to Laos and is not threatened.
  • The rear Indian hog deer ( Axis porcinus annamiticus ) lives in Cambodia and Vietnam . According to new information, the subspecies is almost extinct in Vietnam, but the IUCN still lists it as "data deficient" (i.e. insufficient data for an assignment to a risk level).
  • The Sri Lankan hog deer ( Axis porcinus oryzus ) is native to Sri Lanka . This is likely not a valid subspecies as pig deer were naturalized by humans in Sri Lanka. It is not known whether this happened during colonial times or before. The pig deer was declared extinct in Sri Lanka in 1930, but was rediscovered in the 1980s.
  • The status of two other species, the Bawean and the Calamian deer, is controversial . While some zoologists consider them to be just further subpopulations of hog deer created by human introduction, the majority of experts assume that they remained on their isolated islands after the Pleistocene. Ancestry from ancestors closely related to the pig deer is believed to be probable.

literature

  • Tej Kumar Shrestha: Wildlife of Nepal - A Study of Renewable Resources of Nepal Himalayas. Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu 2003, ISBN 99933-59-02-5

Web links

Commons : Axis porcinus  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Single receipts

  1. ↑ Shrestha, p. 204