Axis Deer

The chital, or axis deer, is a moderate-sized deer native to the Indian subcontinent, ranging across India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka in deciduous and semi-evergreen forests and open grasslands. Its golden-to-rufous coat is completely covered in white spots, and a dark stripe runs along the spine. Only males carry antlers, which are three-pronged and nearly 1 m long. Herds are matriarchal, and animals are active through the day, resting in shade at midday in summer. They mainly graze grasses and turn to browse in winter. Chital are known to forage alongside grey langurs, which keep watch from the trees while the deer offer a keen sense of smell.

About the axis deer

The axis deer, also called the chital or spotted deer, is a moderate-sized deer native to the Indian subcontinent, from India and Nepal to Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Its golden to rufous coat is completely covered in white spots. Genetically it groups with the barasingha and Schomburgk's deer, and it has been introduced to Texas and Hawaii.

Its scientific name is Axis axis. The common name chital comes from the Hindi cītal, from a Sanskrit word meaning "variegated" or "spotted," the same root as the word cheetah. The species was first described in 1777 and split from the lineage of the barasingha and its relatives about 5 million years ago.

The upper body is golden to rufous and completely covered with white spots. The belly, rump, throat, insides of the legs, ears and tail are white, and a conspicuous black stripe runs down the spine. The 20 cm (7.9 in) tail has a dark stripe along its length. The hair is smooth and flexible.

Males are much bigger than females. Stags stand 90 to 100 cm (35 to 39 in) at the shoulder and mature ones can reach 98 to 110 kg (216 to 243 lb), while females stand 65 to 75 cm (26 to 30 in) and weigh 25 to 45 kg (55 to 99 lb). The head and body measure about 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).

Only males grow antlers. They are three-pronged and nearly 1 m (3 ft 3 in) long, with the first tine set roughly at a right angle to the main beam. Like most deer, axis deer shed their antlers every year and regrow them, first as soft velvet that hardens into bone. Both sexes have well-developed scent glands in front of the eyes and on the hind legs, and the eye glands are larger in males.

Behavior and diet

Axis deer are active throughout the day, adjusting to the season. In summer they rest in the shade during the heat and become busiest toward dusk. In cooler months they start foraging before sunrise, slow down at midday, and feed again from late afternoon until around midnight, sleeping in the cooler forest a few hours before dawn. When traveling to food and water, they walk single file along set tracks.

Herds

Herds are matriarchal, built around an adult female and her young from this year and last, but groups are loose and often break up and re-form. Small herds are common, but gatherings of up to 100 animals have been recorded. In Texas, herds have up to 15 members.

When something seems wrong, an axis deer freezes and listens intently while facing the danger, and others nearby often copy the stance. Unlike hog deer, which scatter, axis deer flee together, tails raised to flash their white undersides, and then hide in dense undergrowth. They can clear fences 1.5 m (4 ft 11 in) high but prefer to dive under them, and they rarely stray more than 300 m (980 ft) from cover.

Predators include tigers, leopards, Indian pythons and dholes. Jungle cats, Bengal foxes and golden jackals take fawns.

Deer and monkeys

Axis deer have a striking partnership with northern plains gray langurs. The monkeys, with good eyesight and a lookout high in the trees, spot danger from above, while the deer contribute their strong sense of smell. Together they keep watch more effectively. The deer also eat fruit the langurs drop. Axis deer respond to the alarm calls of langurs and common mynas too.

Calls and displays

Axis deer are vocal. Like the elk, they bellow and bark, though their calls are weaker than an elk's or red deer's. Bellowing comes with the rut. Females and young bark persistently when they spot a predator, and lost fawns squeal for their mothers. Males mark territory by standing on their hind legs and rubbing their open eye glands on tall branches. Sparring starts with a dominance display, after which males lock antlers and push. Fights are generally not serious.

What axis deer eat

Axis deer both graze and browse, but grass makes up most of the diet year-round, with young shoots preferred. From October to January, when grasses become unpalatable, they browse more on herbs, shrubs, leaves and fruit. In India's Kanha National Park they also eat fallen fig fruits from January to May. They visit water holes about twice a day, with great caution. For minerals they scrape at mineral licks with their incisors and gnaw on bones and shed antlers, especially males in velvet.

Breeding

Breeding can happen year-round, with peaks that vary by region. A rutting male stops eating while he follows and guards a female in heat. Gestation lasts about 7.5 months, and a doe has one to three fawns. The newborn is hidden for only about a week, much shorter than in most deer. Mother and fawn often separate but find each other easily within the herd, and a female that loses a fawn can breed again and give birth twice in a year. Males keep growing until seven or eight years old.

Range and habitat

The axis deer is native to India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, between about 8° and 30° north. Its range stretches from eastern Rajasthan and Gujarat in the west to the Terai, Sikkim, western Assam and Bhutan's forested valleys below 1,100 m (3,600 ft) in the north, with Sri Lanka and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands at the southern end. It lives in deciduous and semi-evergreen forest and open grassland across the Indian peninsula.

People have moved axis deer around the world, including to Australia, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, Croatia and Indonesia. In the United States, they were introduced to Molokai, Hawaii, in the 1860s as a gift to King Kamehameha V, and later to Lanai and Maui. With no natural predators, Hawaiian populations grew 20 to 30% a year and damaged farms and natural areas. On Molokai there were an estimated 50,000 to 70,000 axis deer by 2021, compared with about 7,500 people.

Axis deer were introduced to Texas in 1932. By 1988 self-sustaining herds lived in 27 counties of Central and South Texas, most of all on the Edwards Plateau. They have also been introduced in Alabama, Florida, Mississippi and at Point Reyes National Seashore in California.

Axis deer vs fallow deer

The axis deer is sometimes confused with the fallow deer, another spotted species.

Conservation status

The axis deer is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, assessed in 2015, because it occurs over a very wide range with many large populations. There are no range-wide threats, and it lives in many protected areas. Legal protection in India and Bangladesh and a network of functioning reserves are the two main reasons it is doing well.

Locally the picture is less rosy. Hunting for meat has caused substantial declines and local extinctions, and competition with livestock keeps numbers below what the habitat could support in many places. It is locally extinct in central and northeastern Bangladesh.

Where it has been introduced, the axis deer can be a pest. Hawaii law now bans possessing, moving between islands or releasing wild deer, and the European Union added the species to its list of invasive alien species in 2022.