SINGAPORE – A week-old sambar deer found in a deep drain in the northern part of Singapore was reunited with its herd after a search that lasted two days.
The fawn was rescued after it was found in the drain by a member of volunteer wildlife rescue group Acres on the evening of Aug 27.
It appeared to be just about a week old, said Acres chief executive Kalaivanan Balakrishnan.
Acres declined to provide details about where the fawn was found, as a safety precaution.
After getting the fawn out of the drain, the Acres rescue team took it back to the Acres Wildlife Rescue Centre, where it was examined and kept warm, and given nourishment, said Mr Kalaivanan.
Sambar deer are highly prone to stress, so reuniting the baby deer with its family was key because that would increase its chances of survival, he added.
The baby deer remained in the rescue centre overnight while the team tried to locate the herd, which it did in the early hours of Aug 29.
Acres took the fawn to the site where its family was and reunited it with its mother, Mr Kalaivanan said.
This was the first time that Acres has rescued a sambar deer and released it back into the wild, he added.
Sambar deer are believed to be at a high risk of extinction in the wild, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said on its website.
In Singapore, about 15 of these animals are estimated to live in the wild, according to a 2021 study by the National Parks Board (NParks).
Another study two years later found that sambar deer – believed to be extinct in Singapore as at 1950 – were making a comeback after several escaped from public and private local zoos in the 1970s.
The deer herds are confined to a few small forested areas, including parts of the Central Catchment Nature Reserve near MacRitchie and Bukit Timah.
NParks said it receives an average of three reports a year about motor accidents involving sambar deer, including non-fatal cases where the animals run off into the forest.
Source: The Straits Times © SPH Media Limited. Permission required for reproduction
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