Hog Deer

About the Hog Deer

The Indian hog deer (Axis porcinus), or Indochinese hog deer, is a small cervid native to the region of the Indian subcontinent and Indo-Gangetic Plain. Introduced populations are established in Australia, as well as the United States and Sri Lanka.

Its name derives from the hog-like manner in which it runs through forests (with its head hung low), to ease ducking under obstacles instead of leaping over them, like most other deer. Cervus porcinus was the scientific name used by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1777 and 1780, based on an earlier description of Indian hog deer brought to England from India.

It was placed in the genus Axis by William Jardine in 1835 and by Brian Houghton Hodgson in 1847. In 2004, it was proposed to be placed in the genus Hyelaphus. The proposal has not been accepted, with most authors keeping it under Axis. A subspecies, A. p. annamiticus, was once considered its own species, but is now generally considered the same species as A. porcinus.

A mature hog deer stag stands about 70 centimetres (28 in) at the shoulder, and weighs approximately 50 kilograms (110 lb); hinds are much smaller, standing about 61 centimetres... Wikipedia →