From the confines of a zoo to wilderness and from six to 240, the success of mouse deer’s reintroduction into the State’s forests after captive breeding belies interesting tales of science spanning a decade.
Mouse deer breeding was taken up by the Nehru Zoological Park in March 2010 when the facility had four females and two males. The shy, nocturnal deer, at just two-feet tall, were to be bred to combat dwindling numbers in the wild.
The breakthrough
Initial efforts to breed the deer were met with limited success before experts from the Laboratory for Conservation of Endangered Species (LaCONES) began observing the hormone levels of females.
“Peculiarly, the female mouse deer goes into heat within hours after giving birth. Measurement of estrogen hormone levels showed us that the female peaks in heat at around four hours after giving birth,” said Dr. Rakesh Mishra, Director at the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB), to which the LaCONES is affiliated.
This knowledge paved the way for greater efficiency in breeding, which helped the zoo bring to life a population that was also genetically diverse, courtesy exchanges with another zoo.
The State Forest Department began reintroducing the mouse deer in the forests of Nallamalla which houses the Amrabad Tiger Reserve.
On Sunday, Minister for Environment and Forests Harsh Vardhan flagged off a batch of mouse deer headed for the reserve. Officials said though the numbers have improved, mouse deer breeding programme will continue till numbers stabilise in the Indian wild, where the species is red-listed.
