Trivia question for Aug-21-2011

Olivia is up for todays trivia and she found these guys interesting.  Let’s see how she does.  These guys are the largest species of deer in southern Asia.  This species exhibits the solitary nature typical of many large forest dwelling mammals but lacks the herding behavior of the more social deer species.

They also consume a great variety of shrubs and trees. They are a favorite prey item for Asiatic lions. They also can be taken by crocodiles, mostly the sympatric mugger crocodiles. Leopards and dholes will take young or sickly deer.  Adult males and pregnant or lactating females possess an unusual hairless, blood-red spot located about half way down the underside of their throats. This sometimes oozes a white liquid, and is apparently glandular in nature.

So here are Olivia’s questions:  Tell us what kind of deer this is and what they are sometimes referred to because of an odd ability they have.  Also, there is a particular predator in this deers natural range which has figured out how to mimic the call of these deer in order to lure them into a trap.  Tell us what animal has figured that out?

Good Luck 😉

Answer:

Well it looks like Olivia picked a winner again.  No one was able to get this species figured out correctly.  Thank you for all the guesses.  The deer we featured is the Sambar Deer.  The Sambar is a large deer native to southern and southeast Asia. Although it primarily refers to R. unicolor, the name “Sambar” is also sometimes used to refer to the Philippine Deer (called the Philippine Sambar) and the Rusa Deer (called the Sunda Sambar). The name is also spelled sambur, or sambhur.

These sambar has a scent gland below each eye that can pop out at will.  Therefore, the species is sometimes referred to as the ‘four-eyed deer’.  Locals report that the tiger can mimic the bellowing call of the sambar and use this ability to lure the deer into a trap.  Here is more on odd deer: Sambar Deer

Thanks for playing along 😉