Barasingha

The barasingha (Rucervus duvaucelii syn. Cervus duvaucelii), also called swamp deer, is a deer species distributed in the Indian subcontinent. Populations in northern and central India are fragmented, and two isolated populations occur in southwestern Nepal. It is extinct in Pakistan and Bangladesh. The specific name commemorates the French naturalist Alfred Duvaucel. The swamp deer differs from all the Indian deer species in that the antlers carry more than three tines. Because of this distinctive character it is designated barasingha, meaning 'twelve-tined.' Mature stags have 10 to 14 tines, and some have been known to have up to 20. In Assamese, barasingha is called dolhorina; dol meaning swamp. The barasingha is a large deer with a shoulder height of 44 to 46 in (110 to 120 cm) and a head-to-body length of nearly 6 ft (180 cm). Its hair is rather woolly and yellowish brown above but paler below, with white spots along the spine. The throat, belly, inside of the thighs and beneath the tail is white. In summer the coat becomes bright rufous-brown. The neck is maned. Females are paler than males. Young are spotted. Average antlers measure 30 in (76 cm) round the curve with a girth of 5 in (13 cm) at mid beam. A record antler measured 104.1 cm (41.0 in) round the curve. Stags weigh 170 to 280 kg (370 to 620 lb). Females are less heavy, weighing about 130 to 145 kg (287 to 320 lb). Large stags have weighed from 460 to 570 lb (210 to 260 kg). In the 19th century, swamp deer ranged along the base of the Himalayas from Upper Assam to the west of the Jumna River, throughout Assam, in a few places in the Indo-Gangetic plain from the Eastern Sundarbans to Upper Sind, and locally throughout the area between the Ganges and Godavari as far east as Mandla. Swamp deer was also common in parts of the Upper Nerbudda valley and to the south in Bastar.They frequent flat or undulating grasslands and generally keep in the outskirts of forests. Sometimes, they are also found in open forest. In the 1960s, the total population was estimated at 1,600 to less than 2,150 individuals in India and about 1,600 in Nepal. Today, the distribution is much reduced and fragmented due to major losses in the 1930s–1960s following unregulated hunting and conversion of large tracts of grassland to cropland. Swamp deer occur in the Kanha National Park of Madhya Pradesh, in 2 localities in Assam, and in only 6 localities in Uttar Pradesh. They are regionally extinct in West Bengal. They are also probably extinct in Arunachal Pradesh. A few survive in Assam's Kaziranga and Manas National Parks.In 2005, a small population of about 320 individuals was discovered in the Jhilmil Jheel Conservation Reserve in Haridwar district in Uttarakhand on the east bank of the Ganges. This represents the northern limit of the species.