Tragulus napu
greater mouse-deer

Larger Malay Mouse Deer are located in Thailand, Indochina, Sri Lanka, the Malayan Penninsula, and the islands of Sumatra and Borneo.

These animals always live close to water and prefer to be in the undergrowth of dense forests.

This mouse deer, first described by F. Cuvier in 1822, is one of the smallest living hoofed mammals, along with the other three species in this genus. This ungulate has a small, triangular head with a small pointed black nose and large eyes. Approximately the size of a rabbit, they have very long and thin legs and a rounded body. The color is orange-brown with white under the stomach, chest and chin. These ungulates do not have any horns or antlers although the males have small tusks (elongated canines) in their upper jaw. When standing, their hind end is higher than their front quarter. Some measurements of the Mouse Deer is that their body length is 70-75 cm, their shoulder height is 30-35 cm and their tail length is 8-10 cm.

The larger Malay Mouse Deer is a very solitary creature except during the breeding season. They are nocturnal animals who have very distinct patterns of activity and resting. They create small trails while they travel through the thick brush of the forest. Due to the solitary nature of this species, they have no strict hierarchical structure and fights between males are short bouts of biting with their sharp canines. The males have a large gland on their lower jaw that they rub against females to see if they are ready to mate. When the females are not ready, they simply walk away. Very territorial, the males mark their small and permanent territories with their feces, urine and the secretions from the gland under their jaw. The male of this Mouse Deer beats the ground with his hooves at a rate of four beats per second when agitated or angry. At times the males have been video taped to be standing on one foot only, for no known reason. The females tend to stay in their home territory while the males move around and usually do not spend more than a year in the same place.

The larger Malay Mouse Deer has a diet of fallen fruit and berries, aquatic plants, leaves, buds, shrubs and grasses.

Larger Malay Mouse Deer are often used as a source of food for native people. They also make good pets, for they are easily tamed.

The subspecies Tragulus napu nigricans is listed with the IUCN as endangered. This subspecies is found on Balabac Island southwest of the Philippines. Otherwise, these animals are threatened because of over-hunting and habitat loss through deforestation.

Due to their small size, these creatures are hunted by various carnivores such as large snakes, birds, reptiles and cats.

They are known as "living fossils" because they have changed little in 30 million years.