Rucervus duvauceliibarasingha

Ge­o­graphic Range

Baras­ingha, or swamp deer (Rucervus du­vaucelii), were once dis­trib­uted through­out the In­dian penin­sula, but today are only found in areas of cen­tral and north­ern India and south­ern Nepal. There are two rec­og­nized sub­species: R. d. bran­deri, found in Mad­hya Pradesh, and R. d. du­vaucelii, found in Uttar Pradesh and south­ern Nepal. (Mas­si­cot, 2005; Nowak, 1999; Schaller, 1967)

Habi­tat

The name “swamp deer” refers to the habi­tat pre­ferred by the species. Rucervus du­vaucelii du­vaucelii is found in swamp­land and a va­ri­ety of for­est types rang­ing from dry to moist de­cid­u­ous to ever­green. Rucervus du­vaucelii bran­deri is found in grassy flood­plains. In ei­ther forested or open habi­tats, both sub­species are com­monly found near bod­ies of water. (Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Adult Rucervus du­vaucelii stand be­tween 119 to 124 cen­time­ters at the shoul­der, and weigh ap­prox­i­mately 172 to 181 kilo­grams. Their coats are chest­nut brown on the back, fad­ing to a lighter brown on the sides and belly, with a creamy white on the in­side of the legs, rump, and un­der­side of the tail. Their chins, throats, and the in­sides of their ears are also whitish in color. In win­ter months, be­gin­ning around No­vem­ber, the coat turns a dark, dull gray­ish brown. Adult males will have darker coats than fe­males and ju­ve­niles, rang­ing from dark brown to al­most black. The coats of fawns are brown and spot­ted when born, but the spots will fade as the fawn ma­tures. (Nowak, 1999; Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

The name “baras­ingha” lit­er­ally means “twelve-tined”. A fully adult male can have 10 to 15 tines, though some males have been found to have up to 20. Antlers of baras­ingha are smooth, the main beam sweep­ing up­ward for over half the length be­fore branch­ing re­peat­edly. (Nowak, 1999)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • male larger
  • sexes colored or patterned differently
  • ornamentation
  • Range mass
    172 to 181 kg
    378.85 to 398.68 lb
  • Range length
    119 to 124 cm
    46.85 to 48.82 in

Re­pro­duc­tion

Baras­ingha are polyg­y­nous, a dom­i­nant stag col­lect­ing a harem of up to thirty hinds (fe­males). He will fight with other males for pos­ses­sion of the harem and the right to breed. At the be­gin­ning of the rut in mid-Oc­to­ber, herds start to break apart and males cre­ate wal­lows. Male baras­ingha wal­low by uri­nat­ing and defe­cat­ing in muddy pools and then roll, coat­ing them­selves in scent. Males also begin to bugle and bark; these sounds are some­times com­pared to the bray­ing of mules. Their calls will con­tinue through­out the rut and well into Feb­ru­ary. Fights be­tween com­pet­ing males occur as they form harems. Males will scrape the ground with their hooves and then run at each other, clash­ing antlers. The tines will often be snapped off dur­ing these fights, leav­ing the antlers bro­ken or dis­fig­ured. At the end of the rut, stags will leave their fe­males and band to­gether with other stags, while hinds form herds with sim­i­larly-aged fe­males. (Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

Breed­ing, or rut­ting, sea­son be­gins in Oc­to­ber and con­tin­ues through Feb­ru­ary. The ges­ta­tion pe­riod lasts 240 to 250 days, with most fawns born be­tween Sep­tem­ber and Oc­to­ber. A fe­male baras­ingha reaches sex­ual ma­tu­rity at 2 years of age. Baras­ing­has have one fawn per year, rarely twins. (Schaller, 1967; Walker, 2005; White­head, 1972)

  • Breeding interval
    Barasinghas breed once a year.
  • Breeding season
    Breeding occurs from October through February.
  • Range number of offspring
    1 to 2
  • Average number of offspring
    1
  • Range gestation period
    8 to 8.33 months
  • Range weaning age
    6 to 8 months
  • Range age at sexual or reproductive maturity (female)
    2 to 3 years

A fe­male baras­ingha will wean her young be­tween 6 to 8 months of age. Males are not in­volved in pro­vid­ing for or pro­tect­ing the young. (Huff­man, 2006)

  • Parental Investment
  • precocial
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-hatching/birth
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female
  • pre-weaning/fledging
    • provisioning
      • female
    • protecting
      • female

Lifes­pan/Longevity

The old­est cap­tive Rucervus du­vaucelii reached 23 years of age; in the wild, in­di­vid­u­als typ­i­cally reach 20 years old. (Huff­man, 2006; Mas­si­cot, 2005)

  • Average lifespan
    Status: wild
    20 years
  • Average lifespan
    Status: captivity
    23 years

Be­hav­ior

Baras­ing­has are ac­tive through­out the day, but do the ma­jor­ity of their graz­ing in the morn­ing and evening, rest­ing through the hot­ter af­ter­noon. They are so­cial an­i­mals, nor­mally found in herds of sim­i­lar gen­der and age, each herd av­er­ag­ing be­tween 10 and 20 mem­bers. Mixed age and gen­der herds can occur; when they do, one hind char­ac­ter­is­ti­cally leads. Other fe­males form a sin­gle file line be­hind her, fol­lowed by stags in the rear. Lead­er­ship ap­pears to have no re­la­tion to dom­i­nance. In herds of ei­ther type, males demon­strate less loy­alty than fe­males, often leav­ing one herd to join or form an­other. (Huff­man, 2006; Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

Home Range

A typ­i­cal baras­ingha home range is about 4 square miles, though stags are more likely to roam. (Schaller, 1967)

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Baras­ingha males use wal­lows to spread their scent dur­ing the rut in an at­tempt to at­tract avail­able fe­males and an­nounce their pres­ence to other males. Bu­gles and barks are also em­ployed for these pur­poses. Alarm calls are used when preda­tors are nearby. (Schaller, 1967)

Food Habits

Baras­ing­has pri­mar­ily eat grasses. Dur­ing the hot sea­son, they will drink at least twice a day, the first time soon after day­light and again in the late af­ter­noon. (Schaller, 1967; Walker, 2005; White­head, 1972)

  • Plant Foods
  • leaves
  • flowers

Pre­da­tion

Baras­ing­has react to the alarm calls of their own kind as well as those of other an­i­mals by hold­ing their necks erect and cock­ing their ears, fac­ing them­selves to­wards the threat. This alerts oth­ers in the herd, who adopt the same pos­ture as well as raise their tails and stomp their hooves. Barks and screams are sent back and forth through­out the herd, ris­ing in pitch if a preda­tor is sighted. The alarm re­ac­tion per­sists until the baras­ing­has are cer­tain dan­ger is no longer near. The pri­mary nat­ural preda­tors of baras­ing­has are tigers and leop­ards. (Huff­man, 2006; Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

Ecosys­tem Roles

Baras­ing­has are an im­por­tant prey an­i­mal for tigers and leop­ards. They graze heav­ily on grasses and im­pact plant com­mu­ni­ties. (Schaller, 1967; White­head, 1972)

  • Ecosystem Impact
  • disperses seeds

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

Baras­ing­has that leave pro­tected lands are hunted for food by hu­mans. (Schaller, 1967)

  • Positive Impacts
  • food

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

Baras­ing­has are shot and killed be­cause they are thought to feed on crops, al­though there is no ev­i­dence to sup­port this as­sump­tion. (Mas­si­cot, 2005)

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Baras­ing­has are listed as an en­dan­gered species by the IUCN. The sub­species R. d. du­vaucelii is con­sid­ered a vul­ner­a­ble species, while R. d. bran­deri is en­dan­gered. Degra­da­tion of habi­tat, along with pre­da­tion and hunt­ing has brought baras­ing­has to low pop­u­la­tion lev­els. (Huff­man, 2006; Mas­si­cot, 2005)

Other Com­ments

Texts dis­agree on the num­ber of sub­species of the baras­ingha. Some sources name a third sub­species, R. d. ran­jitsinhi, found in Assam, India, though this tax­on­omy is not uni­ver­sally ac­cepted.

Baras­ing­has were pre­vi­ously known by the sci­en­tific name Cervus du­vaucelii, this was re­cently changed to Rucervus du­vaucelii. (Nowak, 1999)

Con­trib­u­tors

Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), An­i­mal Di­ver­sity Web.

Amber Fer­raino (au­thor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point, Chris Yahnke (ed­i­tor, in­struc­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Wis­con­sin-Stevens Point.

Glossary

acoustic

uses sound to communicate

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

bog

a wetland area rich in accumulated plant material and with acidic soils surrounding a body of open water. Bogs have a flora dominated by sedges, heaths, and sphagnum.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

crepuscular

active at dawn and dusk

diurnal
  1. active during the day, 2. lasting for one day.
dominance hierarchies

ranking system or pecking order among members of a long-term social group, where dominance status affects access to resources or mates

endothermic

animals that use metabolically generated heat to regulate body temperature independently of ambient temperature. Endothermy is a synapomorphy of the Mammalia, although it may have arisen in a (now extinct) synapsid ancestor; the fossil record does not distinguish these possibilities. Convergent in birds.

folivore

an animal that mainly eats leaves.

food

A substance that provides both nutrients and energy to a living thing.

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

herbivore

An animal that eats mainly plants or parts of plants.

iteroparous

offspring are produced in more than one group (litters, clutches, etc.) and across multiple seasons (or other periods hospitable to reproduction). Iteroparous animals must, by definition, survive over multiple seasons (or periodic condition changes).

marsh

marshes are wetland areas often dominated by grasses and reeds.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nomadic

generally wanders from place to place, usually within a well-defined range.

oriental

found in the oriental region of the world. In other words, India and southeast Asia.

World Map

polygynous

having more than one female as a mate at one time

riparian

Referring to something living or located adjacent to a waterbody (usually, but not always, a river or stream).

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

sexual ornamentation

one of the sexes (usually males) has special physical structures used in courting the other sex or fighting the same sex. For example: antlers, elongated tails, special spurs.

social

associates with others of its species; forms social groups.

swamp

a wetland area that may be permanently or intermittently covered in water, often dominated by woody vegetation.

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

tropical savanna and grassland

A terrestrial biome. Savannas are grasslands with scattered individual trees that do not form a closed canopy. Extensive savannas are found in parts of subtropical and tropical Africa and South America, and in Australia.

savanna

A grassland with scattered trees or scattered clumps of trees, a type of community intermediate between grassland and forest. See also Tropical savanna and grassland biome.

temperate grassland

A terrestrial biome found in temperate latitudes (>23.5° N or S latitude). Vegetation is made up mostly of grasses, the height and species diversity of which depend largely on the amount of moisture available. Fire and grazing are important in the long-term maintenance of grasslands.

visual

uses sight to communicate

viviparous

reproduction in which fertilization and development take place within the female body and the developing embryo derives nourishment from the female.

young precocial

young are relatively well-developed when born

Ref­er­ences

Huff­man, B. 2006. "Rucervus du­vaucelii, Baras­ingha, swamp deer" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 20, 2006 at http://​www.​ultimateungulate.​com/​Artiodactyla/​Rucervus_​duvaucelii.​html.

Mas­si­cot, P. 2005. "An­i­mal Info – Baras­ingha" (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 20, 2006 at http://​www.​animalinfo.​org/​species/​artiperi/​cervduva.​htm.

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mam­mals of the World, Sixth Edi­tion, Vol­ume II. Bal­ti­more & Lon­don: The Johns Hop­kins Uni­ver­sity Press.

Schaller, G. 1967. The Deer and the Tiger. Chicago, IL: Uni­ver­sity of Chicago Press.

Walker, M. 2005. "Baras­ingha deer, Cervus ducuaceli " (On-line). Ac­cessed No­vem­ber 20, 2006 at http://​www.​worlddeer.​org/​barasingha.​html.

White­head, G. 1972. Deer of the World. Lon­don: Con­sta­ble & Com­pany, Ltd.