Philippine Deer

Philippine Deer[1]
Conservation status
Vulnerable (IUCN 3.1)[2]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Artiodactyla
Family:	Cervidae
Genus:	Rusa
Species:	R. marianna
Binomial name
Rusa marianna (Desmarest, 1822)

The Philippine Deer (Rusa marianna), also known as the Philippine Sambar, is a vulnerable species of deer found in forest and grassland on most larger islands in the Philippines, although its range is increasingly fragmented because of habitat loss and hunting. The Visayan Spotted Deer and Calamian Deer are also native to this country, but have more restricted distributions.

The Philippine Deer was introduced to Guam by Spanish governor Mariano Tobias between 1770 and 1774 as a game species (William Edwin Safford 1905). Although scarce in its native range in the Philippines, it is overpopulated in many areas of Guam, posing serious threats to plant communities by overgrazing.

It was also introduced to Rota, Saipan, and Pohnpei but those populations did not take hold like they did in Guam.

See also

• Sambar Deer

References

1. ^ Grubb, Peter (16 November 2005). Wilson, Don E., and Reeder, DeeAnn M., eds. ed. Mammal Species of the World (3rd ed.). Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2 vols. (2142 pp.). pp. 669-670. ISBN 978-0-8018-8221-0. OCLC 62265494. http://www.bucknell.edu/msw3/browse.asp?id=14200440. 
2. ^ Oliver, W., MacKinnon, J., Ong, P. & Gonzales, J.C. (2008). Rusa marianna. In: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Downloaded on 8 April 2009. Database entry includes a brief justification of why this species is of vulnerable.

Philippine deer was brought onto the island by man and the population is decreasing because of all the hunters.