Cheetal

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Sharing an old image from my files. It is not often that I click herbivores. This image was created in Bandhavgarh Tiger Reserve. I got the chance to click only once.

Canon EOS 10D, Canon EF 300mm F4 L IS USM, 1.4x TC, ISO 800 (forgot to change the ISO from the testing I was doing previous night), f5.6, 1/1000, full frame image.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Lakshminarayanan Nataraja]

Nice image.

Full image of antlers would have been good.

Meanwhile, Sambar undergo a strange phenomenon called sore patch during which their throat bleed.

Any idea as to what behaviour is this sore patch associated ?

Other deers don't have this feature and this sore patch is not confined to rutting period or the period during the drop of their antlers.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

I am quoting George B. Schaller in his much acclaimed book - The Deer and the Tiger :

"One of the manifestations of the early part of the rut is the "sore neck: (J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 1921; Morris, 1988) or"sore spot." On the ventral surface of the neck is a line of hair, somewhat darker and less sleek than the surrounding pelage, which runs down the mid-line from the throat to the lower part of the neck. At the begining of the rut, the hair falls out at the terminus of this line, and the skin seems to slough off, forming a circular area about one to two inches in diameter which is bloody in appearance and exudes a seous fluid, "a kind of whittish looking oily or watery substance" (Thom, 1937). The area around the sore spot is sometimes swollen, and Kemp (1914 [quoted in J. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc., 1921]) observed that hair is occasionally rubbed off over an area as large as eight inches long and six inches wide. I noted the first sore spot on November 15 and the last one on December 15. many sore spots began to heal during the first half of December, and by January the only evidence of them was an area of pinkish skin lightly overgrown with hair. Sore spots were not seen at other times of the year at Kanha, but in Kaziranga Sanctuary two stags and a hind all had them on May 3......."

For some images of Sore spot please check the link:
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1115

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[Prashanth Gokul Dwarapu]

Hi Sabyasachi,

Its a nice photograph, capturing all the beauty of a deer's eyes- no wonder the word "Mrignaini" refers to big beautiful eyes. But I think the snap is that of a chital stag and not of a sambhar or am i wrong?

[AB Apana]

Sabyasachi,

It does look like a chital stag.

Apana

[Sabyasachi Patra]

My apologies for the wrong title. Its a chital. No clue how such a basic mistake. I guess, I should refrain from late night postings. :D Am changing the title.

[Chitrita Chatterjee]

very nice..... wish you had got the full antlers in the pic...