CHENNAI: The mouse deer, an endangered animal found mainly in the Western Ghats, is thriving well in captivity at the
Arignar Anna Zoological Park
at
Vandalur
.
In July 2017, zoo authorities said, two males and three female mouse deer were sent from the Hyderabad zoo under animal exchange programme. It was the first time that mouse deer (Moschiola indica), also known as Indian spotted chevrotain, were seen in the zoo. Since then, the animal that is only slightly bigger than a bandicoot has been successfully bred here.
Two years later, in 2019, one of the females delivered the first batch of fawns. Last month, two fawns were born. Now, the zoo houses 10 mouse deer. Every day, all the mouse deer in the zoo are together
fed
about 5kg of cabbage, carrot, grass, greens and wheat bran, said an official.
In the Western Ghats spread across in
Tamil Nadu, Kerala and
Karnataka, it is rare to sight the shy mammal that ventures out mainly in the night.
Raghuram Raja
, a resident of
Rajapalayam
, said that during a visit to Vellimalai in Theni district some years ago, he had seen a mouse deer on the ridge of a cliff. It was caught in the lights of the vehicle and stood there stunned, he said. “It gave us the opportunity to take pictures at close quarters,” he said.
In Valparai, Chennai Wildlife Warden E Prasant said, camera traps set up by the authorities to track the movement of tigers had managed to ‘snare’ a few mouse deer in a few areas. “However, sighting them in the wild is not easy.”
The Indian government has accorded it the highest protection status, categorising it under Schedule I of the wildlife protection act of 1972. This places it on a par with members of flagship species such as tiger, leopard, elephant and Indian gaur, said the wildlife officials.
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