Welcome back from another long weekend! I hope everyone is enjoying the first Monday of 2010. Today’s fact isn’t going to discuss the interesting adaptation of a certain animal. Instead I just wanted to give you some informtion and make you aware of the leaf deer (also known as the leaf muntjac). I am sure some of you have gone deer hunting looking for that trophy buck. Well these hunters would not like to hunt the leaf deer since I think it would be tough to find a trophy buck.
You see the leaf deer is the smallest known deer in the world. Believe it or not the adult leaf deer stands at twenty inches tall and weighs about 25 pounds! Basically, a fully grown leaf deer would be about the size of a small fawn. Now do you see why trophy hunters would not care for this deer. This doesn’t stop hunting of this unique animal and the locals named it “leaf deer” since they were able to roll the carcass in a large leaf. This just boggles my mind! The male deer still grow antlers but they are only about one inch in height so not quite as spectacular as the deer I am use to seeing. The males and females are pretty much identical except for the antlers of course.
So what is it about this animal that intrigues me so much? You see it is believed that the evolution of deer is characterized by an increase in size, complex antlers, loss of canines, etc. With that in mind it would appear that the leaf deer is part of a more ancient deer group based on these characteristics. It also amazes me that an ancient animal wasn’t discovered until 1997. It makes me question what else could be out there? Who knows what we will discover next in this large, unique world of ours! Keep your eyes open and maybe you will make the next big discovery.
Have a great day everyone!
Literature Cited
A. Rabinowitz, Than Myint, Saw Tun Khaing and S. Rabinowitz (). Description of the leaf deer (Muntiacus putaoensis), a new species of muntjac from northern Myanmar. Journal of Zoology, 249, pp 427-435
doi:10.1111/j.1469-7998.1999.tb01212.x
This is most interesting. I take it that the animal is not near extinction then.
Hi Carmen,
There appears to be a decent population of leaf deer but the hunting pressure on the Leaf Deer could very well threaten the population as they are harvested regularly.
Where do these guys live? I’m just playing catch up on my Wild Facts and I could swear I saw one of these little guys last spring, but thought it must be something else.
Since I know where you live, I highly doubt it was a leaf deer that you saw. Although, maybe you did see one and we can expand their distribution map. The leaf deer has only been found in areas around Burma.
My guess is you saw a fawn! Since you do have white-tailed deer and the babies would be out and about in the spring!
I hope you had a great weekend!