Rusa (genus)
Rusa | |
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Sambar | |
Scientific classification ![]() | |
Kingdom: | Animalia |
Phylum: | Chordata |
Class: | Mammalia |
Order: | Artiodactyla |
Family: | Cervidae |
Subfamily: | Cervinae |
Genus: | Rusa C. H. Smith, 1827 |
Type species | |
Cervus unicolor | |
Species | |
See text |
Rusa is a genus of deer from southern Asia. They have traditionally been included in Cervus, and genetic evidence suggests this may be more appropriate than their present placement in a separate genus.[1]
Three of the four species have relatively small distributions in the Philippines and Indonesia, but the sambar is more widespread, ranging from India east and north to China and south to the Greater Sundas. All are threatened by habitat loss and hunting in their native ranges, but three of the species have also been introduced elsewhere.
Species[]
Image | Scientific name | Common name | Distribution |
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Rusa alfredi | Visayan spotted deer, Philippine spotted deer | Philippines |
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Rusa marianna | Philippine brown deer or Philippine sambar | Negros-Panay, Babuyan/Batanes, Palawan, Sulu Faunal Regions |
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Rusa timorensis | Javan rusa or Sunda sambar | Indonesia and East Timor. |
Rusa unicolor | sambar | Himalayas, mainland Southeast Asia including Burma, Thailand, Indochina, the Malay Peninsula, South China including Hainan Island, Taiwan, and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo |
References[]
- ^ Pitraa, Fickela, Meijaard, Groves (2004). Evolution and phylogeny of old world deer. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 33: 880–895.
Categories:
- Rusa (genus)
- Cervines
- Mammal genera
- Taxa named by Charles Hamilton Smith