English: Binomial name: Axis axis

Class: Mammalia Family: Cervidae Genus: Axis C. H. Smith, 1827 Kingdom: Animalia Order: Artiodactyla Phylum: Chordata Subfamily: Cervinae Species: A. axis

The Axis Deer is also referred to as the Chital Deer. It has a unique characteristic which is that the white spots of the young don’t disappear. They remain on the brown coat of the adults. They speckled look of them is very beautiful and it has white without spotted down the legs.

Chital Deer is usually found in large numbers throughout the forests and open grasslands, with the highest number of Chital Deer being found in the forest of India where they like to munch on grasses and shrubs. Deer species are typically grazers feeding on grasses and small shrubs; however, they have been known to mix it up a little and feed on fruit, forbs and tree branches.

You can probably guess that a smaller deer species like the Chital has quite a few predators, including tigers, dholes, leopards and crocodiles. Interestingly enough, they have formed a relationship with the Gray Langur, which is a leaf-eating monkey. You see the monkey has great eyesight and as such will perch up in the trees and notify the deer (and other monkeys) if trouble is approaching. Similarly, the Chital Deer has a great sense of smell and they will notify their monkey friends if they get a whiff of a mean ol’ bully approaching. This is why you will often see these Langur’s grazing on the ground around a group of Chital Deer.