Skip to content →

Three of the same (#13: spotted deer)

 

 

As you can see in the image above, when a predator is not obviously present, the level of vigilance/alarm/nonchalance exhibited by its prey can vary greatly, from one individual to another.

This is true even within a small, close-spaced, single-species group.

Spotted deer (also known as axis deer or chital) are India’s most numerous and most widely distributed deer.

They are one of the world’s fastest mammals; over a short distance, when running for their lives, they can reach 65kph – more than 20 kph faster than the fastest part of the human world record holder’s 100 metres sprint.

Some humans (this one included) regard Axis Axis as a particularly beautiful, highly sociable, always-interesting species.

Others – particularly those too-exclusively focused on “big cats” – do not wish to “waste” their time on such a “common” animal.

India’s two biggest cats and the two “common” deer who are tigers’ and leopards’ most-preferred prey will each have a multi-image Pelican Yoga post during 2023.

Photo is copyright Doug Spencer, taken in Nagarhole Tiger Reserve, Karnataka, at 8.05 am on 04 March 2023.

Published in Americas and Eurasia and Africa nature and travel photographs