Alexis Cai Straits Times 4 Mar 10;
A RARE sambar deer, once thought to be extinct, became roadkill yesterday when it was hit by a car at dawn on the Seletar Expressway (SLE).
Malaysian tourist Chong Chiew Pin was driving a friend to the airport when he thought he saw something 'floating' just ahead of him in the dark. It was too late when he realised it was a deer that had come out of the undergrowth along Mandai Road.
The deer, about 1.2m tall, was not a runaway from the Night Safari nearby, which has a sambar deer enclosure.
No one knows how many sambar deer there are in the wild here, according to Mr Subaraj Rajathurai, chairman of the Vertebrate Study Group at the Nature Society (Singapore). He estimates there are fewer than 20 in Singapore. These shy creatures are one of two native species of deer, the other being the barking deer.
Sambar deer were thought to have been extinct by the 1940s, dying out from poaching, predators such as tigers, and their habitats being destroyed.
But last year, a pair of males were sighted at Bukit Brown cemetery, near the MacRitchie Nature Reserve. There were also sightings in Mandai Lake Road, near the Upper Seletar Reservoir.
Sambar deer are slightly bigger than most other deer, growing to a height of up to 2m. They are also found in Malaysia, Sri Lanka and other parts of Asia.
Click on image for larger view.
Mr Chong, 49, said he was driving in the rightmost lane at about 5am when the deer came into his headlights. Instead of dashing to safety, the animal seemed to turn towards his purple Proton Perdana.
'We were shocked and my friend was yelling,' he said. 'I stepped on the brakes but it rammed into my car and its antlers poked a hole through my windscreen.'
The right side of the bumper was damaged and the right side mirror broke off. The impact also dislodged the 120kg deer's right antler and left it with a deep gash near its hip, above its right hind leg.
Bleeding from the nose, it lay where it was hit for more than four hours before zoo veterinarians put it to sleep. It was estimated to be three or four years old.
Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) executive officer Deirdre Moss said the SPCA could not reach the zoo at that hour, so it called the Animal Concerns Research and Education Society (Acres), which has more expertise in handling wild animals.
Dr Megan Williamson, an Australian vet with Acres, arrived at the scene at 7am. 'The deer was unable to stand up and looked quite distressed,' she said.
Acres did not have the resources to immobilise such a big animal and transport it to a treatment facility. Dr Williamson stayed with it until a team of six from the zoo arrived at about 9.20am. The zoo vets put it to sleep on the spot.
'To lose the deer is a real shame because of the small number of them in Singapore,' said Mr Subaraj.
Wild deer hits car on highway, put to sleep by Wildlife Reserves
Joanne Chan, Channel NewsAsia 3 Mar 10;
SINGAPORE: A wild deer was injured along an expressway after it dashed onto oncoming traffic and hit a car Wednesday morning.
Police said they received a call at about 5.30am, saying that an injured deer was lying along the Seletar Expressway, near Mandai Zoo.
Eyewitnesses told MediaCorp that the deer was so big that it blocked an entire lane, causing a traffic jam.
A caller to the MediaCorp Hotline, Teo Ah Chong, said he stopped his car when he saw the deer on the expressway.
Mr Teo said the deer appeared to be "panicking" and ran into his car.
The Wildlife Reserves Singapore was alerted and it picked up the animal.
It told MediaCorp that the deer was badly injured and had to be put to sleep.
It had a deep gash on its hip and was bleeding from the nose.
Its antlers were also broken.
The Wildlife Reserves Singapore said the deer was a wild animal, aged between three and four.
Deer killed in hit-and-run accident causes massive SLE jam
Stomp 3 Mar 10;
This morning's (Mar 3) massive traffic jam on Seletar Expressway was caused by an accident involving this dead sambar deer on lane 1.
However the vehicle that knocked down the animal had left the scene.
The Singapore Zoo has indicated that the deer is not one of theirs, as all their sambar deers are tagged with ear notches with the first week of birth.STOMPer Keith_G wonders if it is an offence for a driver to leave the scene of an accident involving animals.
In the STOMPer's report:
"Traffic jam on SLE early this morning.
"This poor animal was lying dead on lane 1.
"I wonder if this is a hit-and-run? If yes, is there any offence?"
Latest update:
This is the Singapore Zoo's statement:
"On March 3, 7.30am, an injured sambar deer was found lying at the Woodlands Seletar Expressway (SLE) towards Central Expressway (CTE) near Gambas. The Wildlife Reserves Singapore team, which consisted of vets and keepers was deployed. At the scene, the deer was found lying on its left side, with a deep gash near its hip and a dislodged right antler. It was also bleeding from the nose.
"After a close examination by the vets, it was ascertained that the animal had been in the same position for four hours (since 5am) and its injuries were quite severe. A decision was made to euthanize the animal before bringing it back to the Zoo.
"Based on the body size and size of antler, the deer is estimated to be about three to four years old.
"The scientific name for sambar deer is Cervus unicolor. It is widely distributed in the forests and hill slopes of India, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, the Philippines, China, Taiwan, Malaysia and Indonesia. It also thrives well in Australia, New Zealand and the United States, where it was introduced.
"At Night Safari, all our sambar deer are tagged with ear notches within the first week of birth. The identified animal does not carry the same identification."
Wild deer wanders onto SLE
Today Online 4 Mar 10;
SINGAPORE - A wild deer was injured on an expressway near Mandai Zoo after it dashed onto oncoming traffic and ran into a car yesterday morning. The sambar deer had to be put down later due to its extensive injuries.
At about 5.30am yesterday, the police received a call about an injured deer lying along the Woodlands Seletar Expressway (SLE) towards Central Expressway.
Eyewitnesses told MediaCorp that the deer, believed to be about three or four years old, was so big that it blocked an entire lane, causing a traffic jam.
A caller to the MediaCorp Hotline, Mr Teo Ah Chong, said he stopped his car when he saw the animal on the expressway.
"I was driving along the SLE ... Near the Mandai Zoo, I filtered onto the left lane. That's when I saw the deer dash onto the expressway and it was running around in a panic. I stopped my car, but the deer crashed into my car and fell down," Mr Teo said.
Wildlife Reserves Singapore, which sent a team to the scene, said the animal had to be euthanised as the animal was badly injured. It suffered a deep gash to its hip, its antlers were broken and it was bleeding from the nose.
The dead deer was not from the zoo.
"At Night Safari, all our sambar deer are tagged with ear notches within the first week of birth. The identified animal does not carry the same identification," said Mr Kumar Pillai, assistant director of Zoology, Night Safari.
A National Parks spokeswoman told MediaCorp that "there is a small population of the sambar deer in the central catchment nature reserve".
"They are herbivorous and there is sufficient food for them in the forest. But they are relatively shy animals and are seldom seen in the open. There have been occasional sightings of them," she said.
Related link
Sambar deer in our forest on the Celebrating Singapore's Biodiversity blog.