The cervidae family.

Part eight the axis deer.

Native to India and Sri Lanka, the spotted axis deer can be seen in Britain in a few parks at woburn and whipsnade in Bedfordshire. It is the most attractive of India`s eight species of deer, and its hindustani name is chital, which means spotted deer. In its homelands, the axis deer lives mainly in lowland forest areas where there is good cover along with good grazing. It will also wander from the forest to feed on crops of nearby villages which has led to alot of the deer being killed by the locals. At the start of the twentieth century herds could be reckoned in their thousands, but now they number much fewer in their native India. As like most deer, axis deer graze by day or night. When they are alarmed, they emit a shrill whistle. They have no fixed breeding season, the young calves may be seen among the herds in Britain parks at any time of the year. A stag rubs its antlers against a sapling in order to remove the velvet or to mark its territory. Nor is there a fixed season for stags to shed their antlers, so all stages of antler growth, as well as hard antlers cleaned of velvet, can be seen among animals in the herd at any time. The attractive axis deer has a rich brown summer coat heavily dappled with white spots, and it has a white bib. Winter colouring is slightly darker. A stag`s three tined (pointed) can grow up to thirty inches. The stag is about thirty seven inches at its shoulder, with the hind being slightly smaller.