Barasingha

About this species

Size

Shoulder 110–120cm; head and body about 180cm

Weight

Stags 170–280kg, hinds about 130–145kg

Diet

Mainly grasses and aquatic plants

Habitat

Floodplain grassland, marshes and open sal forest with grassy meadows

Range

Fragmented: Terai of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, Kanha and Satpura (Madhya Pradesh), Kaziranga and Manas (Assam)

Gestation

240–250 days

The barasingha, or swamp deer, is a large deer named for its antlers: the Hindi name means 'twelve-tined', and mature stags usually carry 10 to 14 points, far more than any other Indian deer. The woolly coat is yellowish brown above and paler below, turning bright rufous-brown in summer, with white on the throat, belly, inner thighs and under the tail. Stags have a shaggy mane on the neck. Hinds are paler and fawns are spotted. Three forms are recognised in India: a swamp-dwelling form of the northern floodplains, a hard-ground form in Kanha, and an eastern form in Assam (Wikipedia, general species account).

Barasingha are grazers of grasses and water plants, feeding through the day with peaks in the morning and late afternoon, and resting in shade in the hot season. In central India, herds average about 8 to 20 animals, with up to 60 together, and form larger mixed herds during the rut. The breeding season runs from September to April, and single calves are born after about eight months, mostly in September and October in Kanha. They post fewer sentries than chital or sambar, and when alarmed they give a shrill, baying call. Loss of wetlands to farming has left the species in small, isolated fragments (Wikipedia, general species account).

Kanha Tiger Reserve in Madhya Pradesh is the only home of the hard-ground barasingha, and one of India's great conservation recoveries. By 1970 only 66 animals survived in the wild; after about 50 years of sustained protection there are now around 1,050 in the reserve, all in the core zone (Kanha Tiger Reserve). Animals from Kanha have also been reintroduced to Satpura Tiger Reserve.

Description: Wildlife of India guide, Wildlife of Everywhere (wildlifeofeverywhere.com); general species information paraphrased from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)