Introduction

At India, Spotted Deer  (Axis axis) is locally referred as Chital. They belongs to deer species in which some other local animals falls. They belong to Cervidae family and are even toed ruminant ungulate  They are native to Indian subcontinent and in Madhya Pradesh region, they have presence in almost all the national parks, wildlife sanctuaries and even at outskirtts of villages and cities. It means they have wide spread presence in Madhya Pradesh.It is a moderate size  It is a mid size deer with rufous upper body colour. Presence of white spots on its skin made him spotted deer. Locally it is called Chital which is HIndi language word. Here males and females can easily be identified as males body size is slightly heavy and they have antlers thus more photogenic during safaris. They are highly social animals thus most of the time, seen in herds only. Sometimes males are seen roaming in isolation. While doing jungle safaris, we will find them mostly at meadows or open grassland areas. They play a very important role in prey-base determination for predator animals thus have vital role to play in eco-system. This is evident from the recent examples in which we have often seen forest department first shifts Spotted deers at newly or under developed wildlife sanctuaries or national parks to form a healty prey-base and then only predator animals like tigers were shifted.

Where to search

While doing jungle safaris, spotted deer sighting is easy due to their high population. They are mostly seen at grasslands on plains. At Madhya Pradesh we can find them at all the tiger reserves and wildlife sanctuaries. Some of their sighting sites listed below:

Good time to see

If we want to see Spotted Deer, just visit any of the near by wildlife sanctuary or national park in Central India, we can spot them nearby grasslands or water bodies. They are seen in all the seasons but because we mostly do jeep safaris in winters and summers thus we mostly find them in these seasons. They undergo molsting process due to which they show different skin coat in summers and winters. Summer coat shed in spring thus in during summer season we find thyem vibrant reddish brown with short and thinner coat. Similarly in winter season, coat gets grown during autumn period thus looks thicker, longer and coarser which protects them in cold and offers better camouflage. From photography point of view, winter coat is better.  

About

Please check below given table to learn some vital details and characteristic features.