Sri Lankan sambar deer

Sambar
	stag/male
	doe/female; both in Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India
Conservation status
	; Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Subfamily:	Cervinae
Genus:	Rusa
Species:	R. unicolor
Subspecies:	R. u. unicolor
Trinomial name
	Rusa unicolor unicolor; (Kerr, 1792)
Synonyms
	Cervus unicolor unicolor;

The Sri Lankan sambar deer or Indian sambar deer (Rusa unicolor unicolor) - it is also spelt "sambhur" or "sambur" - ගෝණා (gōṇā) in Sinhala, is a subspecies of sambar deer that lives in India and Sri Lanka. This subspecies is one of the largest sambar deer species with the largest antlers both in size and in body proportions. Large males weight up to 270–280 kg. Sambar live in both lowland dry forests and mountain forests. Large herds of sambar deer roam the Horton Plains National Park, where it is the most common large mammal.

British explorers and planters referred to it, erroneously, as an Elk ^[2], leading to place names such as Elk Plain.

References

^ Rusa unicolor
^ Storey, Harry (1907). Hunting & Shooting in Ceylon (PDF). Longmans, Green and Co.

External links

[1] Rusa unicolor

[2] Storey, Harry (1907). Hunting & Shooting in Ceylon (PDF). Longmans, Green and Co.

[1]

[2]