| Sambar | |
|---|---|
_male.jpg) | |
| Stag/male | |
_female.jpg) | |
| Doe/female both inKanha National Park,Madhya Pradesh,India | |
Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Genus: | Rusa |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | R. u. unicolor |
| Trinomial name | |
| Rusa unicolor unicolor | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
TheSri Lankan sambar orIndian sambar (Rusa unicolor unicolor), also known as ගෝනා (gōṇā) inSinhala, is a subspecies of thesambar that lives inIndia andSri Lanka. British explorers and planters referred to it, erroneously, as anelk,[2] leading to place names such as Elk Plain.
This subspecies is the largest sambar subspecies and representative of theRusa genus, with the largestantlers both in size and in body proportions. Large males weight up to 270–280 kg.
Sambar live in both lowland dry forests and mountain forests. Large herds of sambar roam theHorton Plains National Park, where it is the most common large mammal.
