Greater Oriental Chevrotain (Tragulus napu) lives in tropical rainforest across Southeast Asia. It feeds on fruits and leaves. Its conservation status is Least Concern.
Fascinating facts about the Greater Oriental Chevrotain
- Weighing just 5 to 8 kg and measuring 70-75 cm from nose to tail, the greater mouse-deer is about the size of a large rabbit yet rivals the biggest members of its genus. Its shoulder stands only 30-35 cm high, and its legs are as thin as a pencil, giving it a low, rounded profile.
- A female greater mouse-deer can become sexually mature at just 4½ months, and gestation lasts only 152-155 days, roughly five months, so a new mother can be ready to breed again within hours of giving birth. This rapid turnover, combined with usually single-offspring litters, lets populations expand quickly when food and space open up. Such reproductive efficiency explains why the species can explode in number after sudden ecological releases, like the loss of competing wild pigs.
- On Pulau Ubin, a 10-square-kilometre island, mouse-deer density surged to 293 individuals per km² by 2024, the highest ever recorded for the species. Researchers documented a fivefold increase between 2009 and 2024, a rise that followed a 2023 African swine fever outbreak that wiped out over 98 % of the island's wild boar. With wild pig density falling to no more than 30 per km², competition and possible predation pressure were reduced, unleashing an ecological cascade that let mouse-deer fill the vacant niche.
- After disappearing from Singapore for more than 80 years, the greater mouse-deer was rediscovered in 2008 on Pulau Ubin, a 10-square-kilometre island of mangroves. The species prefers moist, low-land forests and stays close to water, using narrow trails through thick brush. Its comeback highlights how reforestation and habitat restoration can revive populations of elusive, water-linked ungulates that were once thought locally extinct.
- A solitary, nocturnal animal, the male greater mouse-deer marks his territory with feces, urine and secretions from a gland under his chin, and when angry beats the ground with his hooves at four beats per second. He also rubs this gland on a female's lower jaw to test her readiness to mate. These low-tech signals replace antlers.
Sources
Every fact above was checked against these pages, and kept only where one of them states it.
At a glance
RangeSoutheast Asia
HabitatTropical rainforest
DietFruits and leaves
About the Greater Oriental Chevrotain
In the dappled understorey of the tropical forest, the Greater Oriental Chevrotain moves with an air of quiet purpose, its large, dark eyes watchful as it navigates the dense thicket of ferns and vines. With a series of delicate, almost ethereal bounds, it glides across the forest floor, its slender legs and sharp hooves barely making a sound as it searches for the tender shoots and leaves that sustain it. As it pauses to nibble at a particularly succulent morsel, the chevrotain's very stillness seems to blend it seamlessly into the surroundings, a testament to its remarkable adaptability in this vibrant, ever-shifting world.
Hear the Greater Oriental Chevrotain, and 4,400+ more
Real recorded sounds, 11 nature games and a free Daily 5, 1v1 quiz duels, conservation wins and a safe Kids mode. Free on Feravox.
