Rusa alfredi

Geographic Range

Cervus alfredi is found only on the Visayan Islands, which are located in the central Philippines. This is one of the rarest, least known, and most narrowly disributed species of deer in the world. Formerly C. alfredi inhabited the larger Visayan Islands of Panay, Negros, Cebu, Guimaras, Leyte, and Samar. Now it is only thought to be found in three to four remaining patches of forest on the islands of Panay and Negros.

• Biogeographic Regions
• oriental oriental
  • native native
• oceanic islands oceanic islands
  • native native

• Other Geographic Terms
• island endemic island endemic

Habitat

Visayan spotted deer are most common in the dense interior of the islands. At one time they could be found in larger numbers from sea level to the tops of the mountains throughout the islands. The interiors of the islands are composed of thick rugged tropical forests that range from 750 to 1,000 meters in elevation. The mountains are drained by a series of short violent streams. Visayan spotted deer prefer areas that have undergone a natural disturbance such as fires or landslides. This opens up the canopy allowing the growth of tender plants close to the ground.

A survey in 1991 found that Visayan spotted deer had been extirpated over 95% of its range. The forests are cleared at an excruciating pace by landless peasants and families that were forced into the forest by the collapsing sugar and logging industry. The land that Visayan spotted deer once wandered is now used for farming then abandoned, causing the need for more forest to be cleared. The abandoned agricultural plots are slow to regenerate a secondary forest because of lack of nutrients available in the soil.

• Habitat Regions
• tropical tropical
• terrestrial terrestrial

• Terrestrial Biomes
• rainforest rainforest
• mountains mountains

Physical Description

Visayan spotted deer have a fine, dense, and soft dark-brown coat on their upper body. They have spots on their backs and flanks, which they retain throughout their life. They have pale white fur on the underside as well as on the chin and lower lip.

Visayan spotted deer are small, the shoulder height of a mature deer is around 75 to 80 cm. Females are much smaller than the males. The ears and tail are relatively short.

• Other Physical Features
• endothermic endothermic
• homoiothermic
• bilateral symmetry bilateral symmetry

• Sexual Dimorphism
• male larger
• ornamentation ornamentation

Reproduction

The mating system of these deer is not known. However, in other, related deer, the most common mating system is polygyny. Males compete with one another for access to estrous females. Competition often involves sparring and vocalizing. Successful males are typically older and larger, and able to drive away younger, smaller males. These successful males are the ones who mate with the females. It is likely that Visayan spotted deer have a similar mating system.

• Mating System
• polygynous polygynous

The breeding season (rut) of Visayan spotted deer takes place from November to December. Following the breeding season there is a 240 day gestation period, with births in May and June.

• Key Reproductive Features
• iteroparous iteroparous
• seasonal breeding seasonal breeding
• gonochoric/gonochoristic/dioecious (sexes separate)
• sexual sexual
• viviparous viviparous

Information on the parental care of C. alfredi is not available. In most cervids , parental care is strictly by females. Females give birth to one, sometimes two, offspring. The period of nursing lasts from a few weeks to a few months. Young may stay with their mothers past the time of weaning.

• Parental Investment
• precocial precocial
• pre-fertilization
  • provisioning
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-hatching/birth
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female
• pre-weaning/fledging
  • provisioning
    • female
  • protecting
    • female

Lifespan/Longevity

It is not known how long Visayan spotted deer live. Related deer species can live a maximum of 12-17 years.

Behavior

Visayan spotted deer are social animals and are generally found in small groups with fewer than eight individuals. Sightings are very rare because of the high hunting pressure and dwindling population.

• Key Behaviors
• cursorial
• terricolous
• crepuscular crepuscular
• motile motile
• nomadic nomadic
• social social
• dominance hierarchies dominance hierarchies

Communication and Perception

During the rutting season stag deer will roar. Males are likely to have some physical interactions during the competition associated with rut, if these deer are like other cervids. There are likely some visual and chemical communications from females to males, indicating their estrous status.

• Communication Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

• Perception Channels
• visual visual
• tactile tactile
• acoustic acoustic
• chemical chemical

Food Habits

Visayan spotted deer are herbivores with a diet that includes a wide variety of vegetation. The deer prefer the succulent vegetation that emerges after fires, landslides and other natural disasters.

• Primary Diet
• herbivore herbivore
  • folivore folivore

• Plant Foods
• leaves
• wood, bark, or stems

Predation

The main predators of Visayan spotted deer are Homo sapiens , (humans). The peasants and other unemployed natives that inhabit the surrounding forest have resorted to hunting as a means of survival. Visayan spotted deer are a protected species but the remoteness of their habitat makes guard patrols very difficult. This puts an increasing pressure on small populations that remain. During the dry season, which is from January until June, hunting pressure is at its highest.

Ecosystem Roles

It is difficult to speculate on the role that this rare species may play within its ecosystem. Surely, its browsing behavior has some influence on plant communities. It is likely that these deer are able to keep disturbed areas open for longer periods of time by eating down new vegetation. It is also likely that they influence the pattern of ecological succession in the areas of disturbance throught their foraging behavior, probably prefering some types of forage over others.

Economic Importance for Humans: Positive

Visayan spotted deer are a source of food for the native people of the Visayan Islands. Even though it is illegal to kill this species, it doesn’t stop them, and it has a positive effect on their lives by providing food.

• Positive Impacts
• food food

Economic Importance for Humans: Negative

It is hard to imagine how this species might affect humans negatively. The only possible negative effect would come from enforced protection of the habitat of this animal, which might preclude humans from moving thier subsistence agriculture to more fertile ground. However, there does not seem to be any enforcement of protection of the habitat of C. alfredi .

Conservation Status

Visayan spotted deer are one of the most endangered deer in the world. There are thought to be only a few hundred wild individuals still in existence. This also makes it one of the most endangered mammals in the world. It has a rating of B1 2c on the IUCN categories for critically endangered species. The rating B1 stands for area of occupancy of less than 10 sq km and found in severely fragmented groups. The rating 2c stands for the continuing decline in the quality of habitat. A captive-breeding program was started in 1990 between the Mulhouse Zoo, France and the Philippine Department of Environmental and Natural Resources. The program has grown to three local breeding centers and a number of zoos’s worldwide. The program started with 13 Visayan Deer registered in the international studbook and has since grown to almost 80 registered deer. This species is not listed on any CITES appendix.

Other Comments

The fate of Visayan spotted deer does not look good. If accelerated rates of forest destruction and hunting continue there will be no more deer on the islands in 10 to 15 years. Peasant’s alone account for 50,000 ha of destructed forest land annually. Current practices in the Visayan Islands must change for Visayan spotted deer to make a comeback. The depressed state of the economy and political unrest in the Philippines makes this a difficult task. The deer that are in the captive-breeding programs will not be released until the countryside is able to give them a fair chance for survival.

Visayan spotted deer were previously included in the genus Cervus as Cervus alfredi . They have also been considered subspecies of either Cervus mariannus or Cervus unicolor .

Additional Links

Encyclopedia of Life

Contributors

Nathan Key (author), Humboldt State University, Brian Arbogast (editor), Humboldt State University.

References

Cox, R. 1987. The Philippine Spotted Deer & Visayan Warty Pig. ORYX , 21: 37-42.

Heaney, L., J. Regalado. 1998. Vanishing Treasures of the Philippine Rain Forest . Chicago: The Field Museum.

Kurt, F. 1990. Grizimeks Encyclopedia of Mammals . New York: McGraw-Hill Publishing Co..

Massicot, P. "Animal Info-Philippine Spotted Deer" (On-line). Accessed November 3, 2001 at http://www.animalinfo.org/species/artiperi/cervalfr.htm .

Nowak, R. 1999. Walker's Mammals of the World . Baltimore, Maryland: The Johns Hopkins University Press.

Whitehead, K. 1993. The Whitehead Encyclopedia of Deer . Stillwater, MN: Swan Hill Press.

1998. "Melbourne Zoo-Flora and Fauna Projects" (On-line). Accessed November 13, 2001 at http://www.zoo.org.au/conservation/PSpotDeer.htm .