Indian Muntjac deer
The Indian Muntjac deer (Muntiacus muntjak), also called the 'barking deer', is the most numerous of the Muntjac deer and lives in South-eastern Asia, in Pakistan, India, Nepal, and along South-eastern Asia and southern China. It gets its nickname 'barking deer' because of their barking like dogs when threatened. Their diet consists of leaves, grasses, shoots, and fallen fruit. Muntjacs are considered a very primitive kind of deer, as they appeared 15-35 million years ago with fossils found in France and Germany. Muntjacs are hunted for their meat and skin, and are considered a pest in some areas, where they destroy the trees by ripping of the bark. The Indian Muntjac is not considered endangered. Image of the Muntjac deer, photographed by Pratheepps, licensed under Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.5
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