Rusa (genus)

Rusa
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
	Rusa alfredi	Visayan spotted deer, Philippine spotted deer	Philippines
	Rusa marianna	Philippine brown deer or Philippine sambar	Negros-Panay, Babuyan/Batanes, Palawan, Sulu Faunal Regions
	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[]