Philippine deer

Philippine deer
Conservation status
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Genus: Rusa
Species: R. marianna
Binomial name
Rusa marianna
(Desmarest, 1822)

The Philippine deer (Rusa marianna), also known as the Philippine sambar, is a species of deer native to the forests and grasslands on most larger islands of the Philippines,[2]. It is classified as Vulnerable by the IUCN due to its increasingly fragmented populations as a result of habitat loss and hunting.

The Philippine deer was introduced to Guam by the Spanish governor Mariano Tobias between 1770 and 1774 as a game species (William Edwin Safford, 1905). Although scarce in its native range in the Philippines, it is overpopulated in many areas of Guam, posing serious threats to plant communities by overgrazing.

It was also introduced to Rota, Saipan, and Pohnpei but those populations did not take hold like they did in Guam.

See also

References

  1. ^ Oliver, W., MacKinnon, J., Ong, P. & Gonzales, J.C. (2008). Rusa marianna. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 8 April 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of vulnerable.
  2. ^ Grubb, Peter (16 November 2005). Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). pp. 669-670. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=14200440.