Evidence 1 Part 5 (tufted deer):

Importance of the species in its environment:

As a primary consumer it feeds from grass, vegetables and bamboo. Their role in
the food chain is to serve as a source of meat to the secondary and tertiary
consumers seen in its environment (leopard and dhole).

One of the little things in which the tufted deer is helpful to the ecosystem is by
consuming seeds from vegetables, bamboo and grass and then pooing them thus
being part of a process called “seed dispersal” which as its name indicates helps the
plantation of new seeds.

climate changes or some environmental aspect that

threatens their reproduction:
The breeding only occurs in a specific season which is the last days of the fall and
first days of winter. Also the way they get a mate in this season is by barking in a
sound similar to the one dogs do.

Also the way they behave in a sexual aspect is quite strange, since the males in a
zoo will have territorial fights using their fangs.

A deer can achieve sexual maturity by their 18 moths or 24 months maximum. Also
despite knowing the date in which the mating season starts its unknown how the
ovulation cycle occurs which can lead to nothing happening.

What impact would humans have if the species

disappeared from its habitat?
The tufted deer is not really an important species to the human being since it
wouldn’t affect the human kind directly, but if we look for something they are
usually hunted for fur and meat. Also their existence does not threat in any way the
human being because they are very rare (approximately 500,000)
Conclusion:
The thing that sticked out to me was the way I was really invested while doing this
evidence, I spent a genuinely large amount of time just looking at information and
reading, I find it really interesting how I managed to loose track of time only while
investigating about all the Behaviors and how the tufted deer interacted with
others species.

There is a whole document about how to take care of a tufted deer in a zoo and I
spent at least one hour looking at it since it was amazing how much information
there was only about a single animal. I really enjoyed doing this evidence.

Bibliography:
- Lundrigan, B. and R. Oas 2003. "Elaphodus cephalophus" (On-line), Animal Diversity Web. Accessed
February 09, 2023 at https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Elaphodus_cephalophus/

- Weerman, J. & EAZA (Eds.). (2020, noviembre). EAZA Best practice guidelines: Tufted deer (elaphodus
cephalophus). Recuperado 8 de febrero de 2023, de https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads/CCC/BPG-
2020/2020-EAZA-Best-Practice-Guidelines-Tufted-deer-APPROVED.pdf