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chestnut to a dark brown with white underpart.
It has well muscled slim strong legs to give it speed, with sharp
hooves to give it good grip on the ground. It is also called the
Rib-Faced Deer, as the antlers grow from a pair of elongated skin
covered pedicles, which is an extension of two raised bony
tissues, which mark the forehead of the deer. Does are harmless.
The male carries rushes, which are razor sharp and are weapons of
defence, the tushes can inflict deep sharp cuts on predators, when
they become careless and get too close to the deer.
The deer has facialorifaces or facial opening
that are just below the eye these are scent glands, however
village elders believed it to the night vision eye. The animal
browses on wild fallen fruits and fresh green succulent plants
such as kipu (MANG-LENG-PHE) and Rhat-nawla (SURYOP-PHE), its
movement under the thick foliage is silent and cautious. The
animal browses at early dawn and in the evening; mid-day is spent
resting under cover of a bush under a rock. When alarmed, the deer
ill keep stomping its foreleg and give out a cries of loud bark
Khak-Khak-Khak before fleeing from danger. Young buck at times,
can be seen rubbing its antlers on a bark of tree, and then go
around in a circles over the same spot, take a neat clean jump,
repeat series of such circles and finally take a jump and vanish
into the bushes, village elders called it the Kha-Sha Cham or the
Dance of the deer, in reality its a movement to foil its predator.
Wild hunting dog such as the dhole as well as trained domestic
dogs on the spoor of a deer will track the animal, but whenever it
comes across a place when the buck has made such a circles, the
dogs go around in circles, be come confused and loose track of the
animal, this enables the deer to make good its escape. No specific
rutting season has been observed, the animal mates at any time of
the year. The doe gives birth to a single fawn, twins must be very
rare. Barking Deer are still plentiful in
Sikkim, however we must not be complaisant; grazing of
domesticated animals such as cattle goats and sheep in the forest
can result in the deer having to compete with livestock for
grazing. Diseases can also be transmitted through livestock.
Poaching for its venison also takes its toll. Let us therefore not
disturb nature's delicate balance. The world has already lost
forever, species such as the Dodo, Quagga, the Tasmanian Wolf etc.
In Sikkim we are no longer able to spot the Shigatse Stag in the
higher altitudes and the pygmy hog in the tropical belt of
Majhitar and Kitam. |
