Sambar: a two-minute wildlife lesson

Deer and Pronghorn · day 6 of 7

Five facts

1. The sambar is a giant of the deer world. Of all living deer, only the moose and the elk can grow bigger.
2. Adult males, and females that are pregnant or nursing, have a strange bald, blood-red spot halfway down the throat.
3. When dholes or other dogs threaten them, several sambar may stand rump to rump and call loudly at the pack.
4. When it senses danger, a sambar stamps its feet and gives a ringing alarm call known as belling.
5. Rival stags shove with locked antlers like other deer. Sometimes, though, they rear up and crash down on each other, like goat-antelopes.

The quiz

1. Which of these deer can grow bigger than the sambar?

• The moose (correct)
• The fallow deer
• The water deer
• The sika deer

Only the moose and the elk can grow larger than a sambar.

2. What colour is the bald spot on an adult sambar's throat?

• Bright blue
• Jet black
• Blood red (correct)
• Yellow

Males and mothers have a hairless, blood-red throat spot.

3. What may several sambar do when dogs threaten them?

• Lie down to hide
• Climb onto rocks
• Scatter in all directions
• Stand rump to rump and call loudly (correct)

They may form a defensive group, rumps touching, calling loudly.

4. What does a sambar do when it senses danger?

• It freezes in silence
• It stamps its feet and gives a ringing call (correct)
• It thumps its tail on the ground
• It rolls in the mud

It stamps and makes a ringing call known as belling.

5. What can sambar stags do when sparring, unlike most deer?

• Bite each other's ears
• Kick backwards like horses
• Rear up and crash down on each other (correct)
• Wrestle with their tails

They sometimes rear up and clash downward, like goat-antelopes.

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