Management of Deer under Captive Condition at Chittagong Zoo, Bangladesh

Abstract

The study was carried out at Chittagong Zoo, Bangladesh. Data were collected for a period of fifteen days from 1st September 2018 to 15th September 2018 on phenotypic characteristics, phenotypic parameters, feeding management, housing management and reproductive performance by using a predesigned well-structured questionnaire. There were three types of deer namely barking, spotted and sambar deer and the population number respectively four, ten, and two. The coat color was reddish and “V” shaped black colored mark in forehead and black colored muzzle for barking deer. For spotted deer coat color was reddish brown with white spotted (but under throat, neck, abdomen, tail there is whitish color). The coat color of sambar deer were Deep brown. For male and female barking deer, the ear length was 3.50. The length of foreleg for male and female were 21 and 19.8 inches, the lengths of hind leg were 22.5 and 19.3 inch, distance between two ears was 3.7 and 3.6 inch respectively. The length of antler of male was 3.8 inch. Available feeds supplied to different types of deer were soft green grass, gram, wheat bran, green gourd, pumpkin, carrot and gooseberry. All types of deer were kept within an open enclosure. For barking deer, 9 feet’s height fence with chain link mash used for their restriction in specific surrounding area. For the spotted deer, the open corral area was surrounded by with a fence of iron as like as sambar deer’s open corral. For every species there were shed houses inside the open corral. For barking deer, it was also observed that the weaning age, length of estrous cycle, age at first fawning and gestation length were ranging from 4-6 months; 12-20 days, 16-20 month and 6-7 months. For spotted deer, length of estrous cycle, age at first fawning and gestation length were ranging from 14-22 days, 16-20 month and 7-8 months and for sambar deer, 16-24 days, 24-30 month and 8-9 months respectively. The findings of this study will be helpful for policy maker in Bangladesh in sense of conservation of deer though study period was very short and the population size was small.