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With a population of about 20 individuals on the island, seeing Sambar deer is almost a mystical sight.
This explains the excitement over any sightings of Sambar deer, and even more so when a nuclear family, including a fawn, was spotted.
Image courtesy of Terry Shin.
Netizens wowed by extremely rare sighting
The trio was spotted by a hiker named Terry Shin, who subsequently took to the Singapore Wildlife Sightings Facebook group to share his sighting.
Speaking to Mothership, Shin said he saw the herd of Sambar deer at around 5pm to 6pm on Oct. 27.
Image courtesy of Terry Shin.
Image courtesy of Terry Shin.
For a person encountering Sambar deer for the very first time, Shin was considered extremely lucky as he saw not one, but three of them all at the same time.
Locally, Sambar deer sightings are few and far between, and often times only a solo Sambar deer would make a brief appearance.
Sambar deer are mostly solitary creatures, but they may gather in small groups during breeding seasons.
Many commenters on Facebook were marvelled by Shin's good fortune.
Image screenshot from Singapore Wildlife Sightings/Facebook.
Image screenshot from Singapore Wildlife Sightings/Facebook.
Image screenshot from Singapore Wildlife Sightings/Facebook.
Image screenshot from Singapore Wildlife Sightings/Facebook.
Shin's run in with the three Sambar deer was pure happenstance and he shared that he was very happy.
Sambar deer in Singapore
In response to Mothership's queries, Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum's Curator of Mammals and Bird Collections and biologist Marcus Chua said that the animals Shin had pictured were an adult male, another adult deer, and probably an older fawn.
Chua added that young sambar deer are born with light spots on the sides of their body that tend to disappear after about a week.
Image courtesy of Terry Shin.
Image courtesy of Terry Shin.
Sambar deer, or Rusa unicolor, are native to Singapore and were once thought to be extinct in Singapore during the 1940s due to poaching and habitat loss.
The deer's reappearance on the island, particularly in Mandai, was attributed to a lineage of animals that had escaped from the Singapore Zoo, as suggested by the Singapore Biodiversity Records 2014.
Living in such an urbanised city, they can be spotted out of forested areas, near or along roads and expressways in the vicinity.
As such, there have been reports of traffic accidents involving motorists and Sambar deer.
According to the National Parks Board, the Sambar Deer is amongst the world's largest deer species, following just after the moose and the elk.
Stags or bucks – male deer – can grow up to two metres tall and weigh up to 260kg while does or hinds – female deer – are smaller in size.
Only males deer have antlers with three tines, meaning that the antlers tend to have three branches.
As crepuscular creatures, Sambar deer are active in the early morning or after dark. Their diet consists largely of vegetation like grass shoots, leafy foliage, shrubs and trees.
The deer can also be found in wooded habitats in countries like India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines.
Previous Sambar sightings
Top image courtesy of Terry Shin