Indian spotted chevrotain

[Roopak Gangadharan]

The Indian spotted chevrotain (Mouse Deer) is a solitary and secretive animal which prefers rocky areas with grass cover and is also seen close to water sources.It has an ability to camouflage itself well on the forest floor amongst debris and fallen leaves. while on a transect walk I almost walked into one before it shot off from right under my foot almost giving me a heart attack.

This curious looking animal also has the misfortune of being a preferred target for the pot. Unlike most other ungulates hunting is considered to be the major cause for depletion in populations of this species. Rampant poaching is prevalent in many parts of the country and is continuing even today by tribal populations and poachers who live on the forest fringes.

Shot near the Nilambur Reserve forest . Source of light is a torch.

500D, 55-250, 250mm, ISO 3200, 1/20, -EC. Cropped image

Rgds
Roopak

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Great to see this image of a mouse deer. I saw one in Kabini on 17th Aug. It ran and crossed the road. I was just a glimpse, as is often the case with mouse deers. In Similipal Tiger reserve where poaching is rampant, they are hunted by tribals using dogs. The dogs home in to the place and the tribals then place dry grass and sticks and burn it. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Abhishek Jamalabad]

Lovely sighting. Nice to know this was shot by torchlight. It is a wonder it waited that long.

TFS

[Saktipada Panigrahi]

Nice image. I am amazed to observe the exact reproduction in the photograph what our great teacher wrote five decades back:

"When standing at ease, a forefoot or a hind foot is often trailed, as if lame in that leg." -M.Krishnan

Mouse deer can climb up sloping tree boles and often go to earth in a hollow tree, he also recorded.

Roopak Bhai has mastered the art of photographing with the aid of torch light or even head light of vehicles. He posted on the Laxmi Puja day sometime back, one beautiful image of auspicious 'Barn Owl' taken by him in the night hiding behind a vehicle.
Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

[Mrudul Godbole]

Rare sighting of this very elusive deer. Nice eye contact. I think because of the sudden light, it freezed for a moment and you could get a photograph. Nicely captured. Thanks for sharing.

[V S Sankar]

Nice capture and description Roopakji...I passed thru Nilambur forest recently but couldn't see a mouse deer!!A few elephants were on the way of course!

Nice info from Saktiji as usual.Nice to know that these animals still run around in the forests of Kerala.

[Roopak Gangadharan]

Abhishek, Mrudul : i feel most animals don’t run away immediately from a sudden source of light, instead it is the sound ( maybe sight or smell also) accompanying it which prompts them to scoot, so if you are waiting in a place and quietly shine a torch on an animal which appears there more often than not you will get a bewildered/ suspicious stare for some time and then they go back to business mostly. In this case and on some other occasions with shy nocturnal subjects, once i started clicking it freezed and then ran. got about 5 shots, but that was after watching it for about 2 minutes when it actually moved a bit and came into a clearing.

Shakti da : Thanks for the kind words, it started quite sometime ago while volunteering to stand watch on beaches for helping protect nesting olive ridley turtles when i realised that on the countryside there is a lot more animal activity in the nights and it also easier to observe them without being disturbed. In a sense it was a forced technique and it was only observing animals or bird and recordings for quite sometime, attempts to make images started only after joining Indiawilds. Sometimes i even wonder about the right/ wrong, pro/cons of what Iam doing.....

Shankar sab the conservation credentials of our state are nothing to be proud of, but the kind of biodiversity it has certainly is and so is the kind of passion which some individuals have shown for creating awareness and protecting it. It is for all of us to do what little we can to try and support them. The rewards of trying to do that are some good sightings of these beautiful creatures and some amazing moments of natural history which will only reinforce that urge to do something before we lose it all.

TFS
Roopak

[Subhash Shrivastava]

Hi Roopak, I saw this image multiple times , each time staring at this beautiful living being in amazement and in drawing inspiration. I even forgot to see who has posted it, only when I went through comments that i realized this masterpiece by you. thanks for sharing.

Coming to conservation point, in places like Kerala where there have been abundant wildlife and forests till very recently, wild animal can still be see in countryside in night. In most of the places where the carnage have been happening since last 20 years, almost all is wiped out. In the Deccan areas where I move about, to spot a rabbit even in night is no less than a miracles. Once upon a time, I had seen the bands of Black bucks roaming in countryside all the way from Manmad to Hyd when I used to take that journey quite often in 2000 to 2002, now we can declare a prize money for anyone to spot them from train.

Our village societies who were known for their tolerance to wild life have matched up with urban population for upward mobility (or greediness) and participated in wholesale destruction. We still hear about the development mantra as if we are in a African country with 90% land in forests, our custodians are devising ways to do away with remaining patches of wilderness, be it Kutch in Gujarat, or mangroves in Srikakulam, Western ghats, or Andamans; the development gravy train is coming in full throttle, we need to stay clear of its track or else we are anti-patriot, how dare we say anything against the gods on earth !

[Shyamala Kumar]

A rare sighting captured beautifully.Thanks for sharing.