Indian muntjac
Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus muntjac )
The Indian muntjac ( Muntiacus muntjac ) is a medium- sized species of the deer family. It comes in large parts of South and Southeast Asia before including numerous islands of Indonesia.
- 3.1 Reproduction
Features
The head -body length of the Indian muntjac is 98-120 cm, the tail length of 17 to 20 centimeters. The shoulder height is 50-72 inches, females are slightly smaller than males; also vary the subspecies in size and coloring. Individual weights of animals is 17-40 kg. The animals are medium sized with long, slender legs. They have a reddish brown and short coat, which is on the lower abdomen white, and the tail is reddish brown on the upper side and lower side white. From the neck is no dark line is going down, resulting in the kind of other species such as the Chinese muntjac ( Muntiacus reevesi ) differs. The front legs have black spots, which can vary greatly in severity between the different subspecies.
Skull characteristics
The skull has a total length of 176-200 millimeters. Like all muntjac has the kind in the maxilla per half a canine ( canine ), three Vorbackenzähne ( Praemolares ) and three molars ( Molar ), incisors are absent. In the mandible, it additionally has in each half three incisors. Overall, the animals thus have 34 teeth.
The antlers of the males has two ends and only reaches a length of about 15 centimeters, in addition they have 2 small, dagger -like tusks, caused by the lower canines growing out of the lower jaw. The tusks of the females are slightly shorter.
Genetic features
The genome of the Indian muntjac consists of a very small number of chromosomes: The males have a diploid chromosome complement of 2n = 7 chromosomes, whereas it is in the females 2n = 2n = 6 or 8. For comparison, the Chinese muntjac 2n = 46 chromosomes.
Dissemination
The Indian Muntjac is found in India, Nepal, China, Bangladesh, the rest of Southeast Asia and Sri Lanka and the large Sunda Islands.
This species was also in the UK, for example, located in Thedford Forest Park in Suffolk and in France.
Way of life
The barking deer inhabits dense forests, hills and mountains up to an altitude of 4000 meters unless he finds enough coverage and food such as grasses, leaves, fruits and shoots of young trees. In Britain and France, he inhabits larger landscape parks. The animals are strictly territorial and generally live alone or in pairs. The males mark their territory with a secretion which is secreted from glands on the chin. The animals are mostly nocturnal. Their natural enemies include tigers and leopards.
Reproduction
The gestation period of females is about 6 months, after which the females usually throw a cub, twin births are rare. The pups are nursed for 4-5 months and after another month already own.
System
The Indian Muntjac is classified as a separate species within the muntjac ( genus Muntiacus ), which consists of eleven species. The first scientific description comes from Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann from 1780.
Within the species Muntiacus muntjac muntjac besides the nominate 10 other subspecies are distinguished:
- Muntiacus muntjac muntjac
- Muntiacus muntjac annamensis
- Muntiacus muntjac aureus
- Muntiacus muntjac curvostylis
- Muntiacus muntjac guangdongensis
- Muntiacus muntjac malabaricus
- Muntiacus muntjac menglalis
- Muntjac Muntiacus montanus
- Muntiacus muntjac nigripes
- Muntiacus muntjac vaginalis
- Muntiacus muntjac yunnanensis
According to various authors of the Indian muntjac in South Asia is muntjac Muntiacus vaginalis isolated as a separate species from limited to Southeast Asia and Indonesia Muntiacus, among others, by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ( IUCN).
Threats and conservation
The type is determined by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources ( IUCN) due to the large area of distribution in Asia and the size of the stock adopted and the very good adaptability to the habitat changes caused by logging and conversion of forests to agricultural land as not at risk ( " least concern " ) classified. Above all, through deforestation and clearing of forests take the inventory figures on regional and capacity of the habitat, especially in highly fragmented areas are not exhausted.