Eld's Deer - Peculiarities

Peculiarities

Peculiarities to each subspecies include:

• P. e. eldi which in Manipur is associated with wetlands. It has adaptations of the hooves (feet) to move easily in their marshland (boggy ground) habitat of phumdis. It lives in significantly different ecosystems compared to other subspecies and in divergent morphology. Antlers are shed every year and reach their largest size during the breeding season.

• The P. e. thamin of Burma and Thailand are not associated with wetlands and live in three forest types: indaing forest (dominated by the tree Dipterocarpus tuberculatus) equivalent to deciduous dipterocarp forest (dipterocarp trees which belong to the family Dipterocarpaceae are resinous trees found in the Old World tropics) of Indochina and Thailand, deciduous forests of dry (thandahat), and mixed (teak).

• The P. e. siamensis of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam are not associated with wetland. They are found in deciduous dipterocarp forests.