Lesser mouse-deer

The lesser mouse-deer, lesser Malay chevrotain, or kanchil (Tragulus kanchil) is a species of even-toed ungulate in the family Tragulidae.

Lesser mouse-deer
A lesser mouse-deer in a German zoo
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Tragulidae
Genus: Tragulus
Species:
T. kanchil
Binomial name
Tragulus kanchil
Raffles, 1821

Distribution

The lesser mouse-deer is found widely across Southeast Asia in Indochina, Myanmar (Kra Isthmus), Brunei, Cambodia, China (Southern Yunnan), Indonesia (Kalimantan, Sumatra and many other small islands), Laos, Malaysia (Peninsular Malaysia, Sarawak and many other small islands), Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.

Description

It is one of the smallest known hoofed mammals, its mature size being as little as 45 cm (18 inches) and 2 kg (4.4 lb) and related to the even smaller Java mouse-deer. It is threatened by predation by feral dogs.

Adult lesser mouse deer from Singapore

Through further research it is also discovered that the creatures who were initially believed to be nocturnal actually conduct their activities during the day. As discovered by Kusuda, the first being that though many births occur in May, November or December, the females are able to reproduce throughout the year (Kusuda et al.).

Folklore and literature

In Indonesian and Malaysian folklore, the mouse-deer Sang Kancil is a cunning trickster similar to Br'er Rabbit from the Uncle Remus tales, even sharing some story plots. For instance, they both trick enemies pretending to be dead or inanimate,[2][3] and both lose a race to slower opponents.[4][5] The mouse-deer also plays a role in the novel King Rat, when the character The King sells rat meat to officers within his POW camp but claims it is mouse-deer meat in order to fool them into eating it.[6]

References
  1. Timmins, R.; Duckworth, J.W. (2015). "Tragulus kanchil". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2015: e.T136297A61978576. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2015-2.RLTS.T136297A61978576.en. Retrieved 19 November 2021.
  2. Backus, Emma M. (1900). "Folk-Tales from Georgia". The Journal of American Folklore. 13 (48): 19–32. doi:10.2307/533730. JSTOR 533730.
  3. Jon C. Stott (21 September 2010). A Book of Tricksters: Tales from Many Lands. Heritage House Publishing Co. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-926613-69-7.
  4. Rahimidin Zahari. Sang Kancil and the snail. ITBM. p. 49. ISBN 978-967-460-035-8.
  5. "Uncle Remus (Myth-Folklore Online)".
  6. Sutherland, John (2014-05-08). How to be Well Read: A guide to 500 great novels and a handful of literary curiosities. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4090-3915-0.

Kusuda, S., Adachi, I., Fujioka, K., Nakamura, M., Amano-Hanzawa, N., Goto, N., et al. (2013). Reproductive characteristics of female lesser mouse deer (tragulus javanicus) based on fecal progestogens and breeding records. Animal Reproduction Science, 137(1-2), 69–73. doi:10.1016/j.anireprosci.2012.12.008

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