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Greater mouse-deer [1] | |
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At Palm Beach Zoo, Florida | |
Scientific classification | |
Domain: | Eukaryota |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Tragulidae |
Genus: | Tragulus |
Species: | T. napu |
Binomial name | |
Tragulus napu (F. Cuvier, 1822) | |
The greater mouse-deer, greater Malay chevrotain, or napu (Tragulus napu) is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae found in Sumatra, Borneo, and smaller Malaysian and Indonesian islands, and in southern Myanmar, southern Thailand, and peninsular Malaysia. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical, moist, lowland forest.
Tragos is Greek for "goat" and –ulus in Latin means "tiny". Napu is a local name, from Malay napuh. The name "mouse-deer" refers to its small size and does not imply that it is a true deer. It is called "greater" because it is larger than other Tragulus species.
The greater mouse-deer is an even-toed ungulate. Although very small for an ungulate, the greater mouse-deer is one of the largest members of its genus. It is rivalled in size by Williamson's mouse-deer. It weighs 5 to 8 kg (11 to 18 lb). Its head-and-body length is 70 to 75 cm (2.30 to 2.46 ft) and its tail length is 8 to 10 cm (3.1 to 3.9 in). Its shoulder height is about 30 to 35 cm (12 to 14 in) It has a small, triangular head with a small, pointed, black nose and large eyes. Its long legs are as thin as a pencil. The hind legs are visibly longer than the front legs. The body is rounded. The fur on the upper part of its body is grey-buff to orange-buff. On the sides, the fur is quite pale, but darker along the midline. It is white underneath, more specifically on the neck, stomach, chest, and chin. The male has neither horns nor antlers, but has small "tusks" – elongated canines in the upper jaws.
Greater mouse-deer are found in Sumatra, Borneo, and smaller Malaysian and Indonesian islands, and in southern Myanmar, southern Thailand, and peninsular Malaysia. They live near water, in tropical forests and mangrove thickets. Thought to be regionally extinct in Singapore, they were rediscovered on an offshore island in 2008. [2] [3] Reports of its occurrence elsewhere are probably incorrect. [2] They are terrestrial, but spend time in wet, swampy areas.
The greater mouse-deer is solitary and nocturnal. It uses small trails through thick brush in the forest. When the male is ready to mate, he rubs a large gland on his lower jaw against the female to determine whether she is ready to mate. If she is not ready, she responds by walking away. The male is very territorial, marking his territory with feces, urine, and secretions from the intermandibular gland under the chin. When angry, the male beats the ground with his hooves at a rate of four times per second.
They are rather trusting but delicate animals. They feed on fallen fruits, aquatic plants, buds, leaves, shrubs and grasses.
Greater mouse-deer breed throughout the year; the female spends most of her adult life pregnant. They usually produce one young per birth, after a gestation of 152–155 days. Newborn animals are well-developed and immediately able to stand; they are fully active after 30 minutes. The young stand on three legs while nursing. Both male and female become mature at age 4½ months. Their lifespan is up to 14 years.
The major threats to T. napu are overhunting by humans and loss of habitat [2] through rapid deforestation.
Artiodactyls are placental mammals belonging to the order Artiodactyla. Typically, they are ungulates which bear weight equally on two of their five toes. The other three toes are either present, absent, vestigial, or pointing posteriorly. By contrast, most perissodactyls bear weight on an odd number of the five toes. Another difference between the two orders is that many artiodactyls digest plant cellulose in one or more stomach chambers rather than in their intestine. Molecular biology, along with new fossil discoveries, has found that cetaceans fall within this taxonomic branch, being most closely related to hippopotamuses. Some modern taxonomists thus apply the name Cetartiodactyla to this group, while others opt to include cetaceans within the existing name of Artiodactyla. Some researchers use "even-toed ungulates" to exclude cetaceans and only include terrestrial artiodactyls, making the term paraphyletic in nature.
Chevrotains, or mouse-deer, are diminutive, even-toed ungulates that make up the family Tragulidae, and are the only living members of the infraorder Tragulina. The 10 extant species are placed in three genera, but several species also are known only from fossils. The extant species are found in forests in South and Southeast Asia; a single species, the water chevrotain, is found in the rainforests of Central and West Africa. In November 2019, conservation scientists announced that they had photographed silver-backed chevrotains in a Vietnamese forest for the first time since the last confirmed sightings in 1990.
The southern red muntjac is a deer species native to Southeast Asia. It was formerly known as the Indian muntjac or the common muntjac before the species was taxonomically revised to represent only populations of Sunda and perhaps Malaysia. The other populations being attributed to this species are now attributed to Muntiacus vaginalis. Muntjacs are also referred to as barking deer. It is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List.
The jambu fruit dove is a smallish colourful fruit dove. It is a resident breeding species in southern Thailand, Malaysia, Brunei and the Indonesian islands of Kalimantan, Sumatra and Java. It is a monotypic species.
Nepenthes benstonei is a tropical pitcher plant endemic to Peninsular Malaysia, where it grows at elevations of 150–1350 m above sea level. The specific epithet benstonei honours botanist Benjamin Clemens Stone, who was one of the first to collect the species.
The southern pig-tailed macaque, also known as the Sundaland pig-tailed macaque and the Sunda pig-tailed macaque, is a medium-sized macaque that lives in Sundaland, southern Thailand, Malaysia, and Indonesia. It is known locally as beruk.
The Philippine mouse-deer, also known as the Balabac chevrotain or pilandok, is a small, nocturnal ruminant, which is endemic to Balabac and nearby smaller islands southwest of Palawan in the Philippines. The genus Tragulus means 'little goat' and the Philippine mouse-deer has been named so due to the horizontal pupils of the eyes. This position of the pupil allows for an increase in peripheral depth perception. It has traditionally been considered a subspecies of the greater mouse-deer. In 2004, though, T. nigricans was separated from T. napu as its own species due to differences in skull morphology. Contrary to its common name, the Philippine mouse-deer does not belong to the true deer family (Cervidae), but is rather more closely connected to antelope and antelope-like bovids; it is a member of the chevrotain family, a grouping of some of the world's smallest hoofed mammals.
Nyctixalus pictus, also known as cinnamon frog, cinnamon treefrog, cinnamon bush frog, painted Indonesian treefrog, and white-spotted treefrog, etc., is a species of frog in the family Rhacophoridae. It is found in the Malay Peninsula, the Philippines, and parts of the Greater Sunda Islands.
The black-winged flycatcher-shrike is a species of bird in the flycatcher-shrike genus, Hemipus. It is usually placed in the Vangidae. It is found in the Malay Peninsula and the Greater Sunda Islands. Its natural habitats are lowland forests and sometimes swamps and mangroves. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as being of least concern.
The grey-chinned minivet is a species of bird in the family Campephagidae. It is found from the Himalayas to China, Taiwan and Southeast Asia. Its natural habitat is forests about 1,000–2,000 m (3,300–6,600 ft) in elevation. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has assessed it as a least-concern species.
The grey-and-buff woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, southern Myanmar, and southern Thailand, but has become regionally extinct in Singapore. Its natural habitats are lowland and montane tropical or subtropical moist broadleaf forests.
The banded woodpecker or the banded red woodpecker is a species of bird in the family Picidae. It is found in Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, and Thailand. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests and subtropical or tropical mangrove forests.
The Java mouse-deer is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. When it reaches maturity it is about the size of a rabbit, making it the smallest living ungulate. It is found in forests in Java and perhaps Bali, although sightings there have not been verified.
Tragulus is a genus of even-toed ungulates in the family Tragulidae that are known as mouse-deer. In Ancient Greek τράγος (tragos) means a male goat, while the Latin diminutive –ulus means 'tiny'. With a weight of 0.7–8.0 kg (1.5–17.6 lb) and a length of 40–75 cm (16–30 in), they are the smallest ungulates in the world, though the largest species of mouse-deer surpass some species of Neotragus antelopes in size. The mouse-deer are restricted to Southeast Asia from far Southern China to the Philippines (Balabac) and Java.
Moschiola, the spotted chevrotains, are a genus of small even-toed ungulates in the family Tragulidae. They are found in forests in India, Sri Lanka and perhaps Nepal, and have pale-spotted or -striped upperparts unlike the other Asian members of the family, the mouse-deer of the genus Tragulus.
The lesser mouse-deer, lesser Malay chevrotain, or kanchil is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae.
The Vietnam mouse-deer, also known as the silver-backed chevrotain, is an even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae known only from Vietnam. It was first described in 1910 by British zoologist Oldfield Thomas, who procured four specimens from Nha Trang in Annam. Little is known about its distribution and ecology. After 1910, the Vietnam mouse-deer was reported next in 1990 near Dak Rong and Buon Luoi in the Gia Lai Province. With increasing hunting pressure, habitat loss due to deforestation and no more reports of the species in the wild, the mouse-deer was feared to have gone extinct. The IUCN listed the species as Data Deficient in 2008. In 2019, a study confirmed the presence of the Vietnam mouse-deer in dry low-lying forests of southern Vietnam with camera trap evidence. The mouse-deer is characterised by a rough coat with a strange double-tone coloration unseen in other chevrotains; the front part of the body is reddish brown and contrasts strongly with the greyish posterior. It has big reddish brown ears, white and dark reddish brown marks on the throat.
Williamson's mouse-deer is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae. It is found in Thailand, and possibly in China. The species is named after the collector Walter James Franklin Williamson.