What do sambar deer eat

Other deer species may not so versatile and fallow deer, for example, are primarily grazers and hence are usually seen feeding and living in or near paddocks. With most grasses, nipped-off leaves will be difficult to spot and tracks will often be hard to find or identify with certainty. However, sometimes evidence of feeding is very conspicuous, tracks are obvious and nearby beds and droppings leave no doubt as to the animals responsible. Forsyth and Davis examined the rumen contents of sambar and found that the diet of these animals consisted of around 50 per cent browse, 20 per cent grasses and 20 per cent ferns with a shift towards browse in spring and towards grasses in autumn.

There are probably scores of different grass species present in sambar country, both native and introduced. In eucalypt forest, most will probably be natives and generally adapted to harsh conditions, fire and poor soils and I suspect will be rather unpalatable and of low nutritional value unless they are regrowing after fire.

In fringe country, it is much more likely that there will be a mix of more palatable native species such as wallaby and kangaroo grasses and highly palatable, introduced pasture species like ryegrass, clovers and cocksfoot, particularly if fertilisers have been spread.

While alpine meadows are not all that common in sambar country they do occur and due to past or current cattle grazing probably contain a mix of native and introduced grasses as well as introduced white clover. Do sambar deer eat? Asked by: Ena Harber. Do deer live in pine forests? What noise does a sambar deer make?

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On the day I was with Garry we found deer sign but it was not fresh enough to let hounds loose on. But the fact was that after several years of studying, recording and sampling sambar feeding sign I was able to apply my knowledge directly to a hunting situation.

The banyalla I lead Garry down to serves as a good example of how recognising a plant or plant community can lead a hunter to the presence of a deer.

Other plants like prickly coprosma, rough coprosma and cherry trees are always worth a look. In fact, if you understand what and when they eat it, plant communities at the right time of the year are worth checking out. But first we must build our knowledge through observing, recording and identifying otherwise we will not know the difference between prickly coprosma and rough coprosma nor will we understand the importance of cherry trees to stags.

Available through the book order section in this magazine. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Knowing Sambar Food Plants…. Hunting Tips. This sunny bank carries a mix of grassing and browse species along with a fairly high density of deer tracks. It indicates a prime spot for feeding deer. No doubt about it, deer tracks and the lack of any other animal marks in the soft bank combined with this obvious fresh example of cropped grass clearly indicates sambar feeding sign.

A variety of grasses and herbs show fresh grassing evidence. A wild cherry tree, sambar deer eat it, rub their antlers on it and shelter under it.

Now that is a useful tree. The patch of mud indicates a wallow in the vicinity. It is the skill of a hunter who sees this and who but a hunter would notice? Some examples: Wild rose, shown in its dormant state of winter, it will offer much more when its new shoots, flowers and fruits develop. This clematis is a native climber, something a little different for your consideration and definitely not your common garden variety.

This photo of the foliage of a wild cherry tree clearly shows some old sambar browse sign as is obvious from brown browsed off tips alongside the freshly pinched off tips for comparison. Blackwood has a distinct and easily recognisable leaf for the observant hunter. Rough coprosma is a favoured food plant for sambar. Creek and river flats often carry an abundance of mixed grazing and browsing species relative to the surrounding country and the water is very important to lactating hinds.

Fire is a mixed blessing transforming the habitat with a short term burst of succulent plants but as you can see the bush is now thick and this old cherry is dead, no longer rubbed by stags year after year. Fact 1. Sambar love banyalla Fact 2. My beloved banyalla. Like all plants there can be some variation in leaf size, slightly larger than usual and no deer browse sign.

Banyalla carries a leaf that is smooth and shiny on top and hairy underneath and it will develop a small bell shaped flower that will develop into a hard open seed pod. By Wild Deer September 30, Previous Previous History of Sambar.

They also have very long antlers that can develop quite a few points on them. They can be more than 40 inches when you look at the full spread of them. Full grown males can be about 1, pounds with the females weighing in at about pounds.

They have a very dark brown coat with various markings along the sides of them. The woodlands around Asia is where the Sambar Deer is located. They are often found in the higher elevations but they do need to stay within distance of water sources. The Himalayan Mountains are where the largest numbers of these deer are found. Their paths often cross with the Musk Deer in this area.

New Zealand and Australia are also home to them but in much smaller numbers. Many of the Sambar Deer have been relocated successfully into various National Parks.