Sambar deer
Rusa unicolor (Kerr, 1792)
The sambar deer (Rusa unicolor), also called Sambar or Indian sambar, is a large mammal in the family Cervidae, order Artiodactyla. It is a terrestrial, nocturnal herbivore of grassland and shrubland, with an adult body mass of 177.5 kg and up to 225 kg.
Quick facts about the sambar deer
The IUCN Red List classifies the sambar deer as Vulnerable, a threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- 177.5 kg – 225 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 26.4 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 26.4 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- grassland, shrublandsrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 240 days – 248 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 20.4 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Vulnerable (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the sambar deer
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
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Where does the sambar deer live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The sambar deer is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the sambar deer?
The sambar (Rusa unicolor) is a large deer native to the Indian subcontinent, South China and Southeast Asia. It has been listed as a vulnerable species on the IUCN Red List since 2008, as populations have declined substantially due to hunting, local insurgency, and industrial exploitation of habitat.
From the Wikipedia article “Sambar deer” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sambar_deer&oldid=1383130450), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the sambar deer endangered?
The sambar deer is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List: it faces a high risk of extinction in the wild.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Vulnerable species.
How is the sambar deer classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderArtiodactyla
- familyCervidae
- genusRusa
- SpeciesRusa unicolor (Kerr, 1792)
Synonyms Cervus albicornis, Cervus hippelaphus, Cervus unicolor
Other names and names in other languages (45)
- Indian sambarEnglish
- Indian sambarEnglish
- SambarEnglish
- SambarEnglish
- SambarEnglish
- صمبرArabic
- শৰপহুAssamese
- Індыйскі замбарBelarusian
- সম্বর হরিণBangla
- ngabulbnn
- hanvangbnn
- sambar indickýCzech
- PferdehirschGerman
- Indischer SambarhirschGerman
- SambarhirschGerman
- Ελάφι ΣαμπάρGreek
- Ciervo sambarSpanish
- TumesambarEstonian
- SambarhirviFinnish
- Cerf sambarFrench
- સાબરGujarati
- számbárszarvasHungarian
- Rusa SambarIndonesian
- Sambar indianoItalian
- サンバーJapanese
- スイロクJapanese
- ប្រើសKhmer
- ಕಡವೆKannada
- 삼바Korean
- 물사슴Korean
- 삼바사슴Korean
- Indinis zambarasLithuanian
- TiaMāori
- सांबरMarathi
- RusaMalay
- SambarhjortNorwegian Bokmål
- ସମ୍ବରOdia
- Sambar jednobarwnyPolish
- Cervo-SambarPortuguese
- Индийский замбарRussian
- ගෝනාSinhala
- กวางป่าThai
- กวางม้าThai
- Замбар індійськийUkrainian
- 水鹿Chinese
Relatives of the sambar deer
Other species in the same genus Rusa.
Javan rusa
Rusa timorensis
Visayan spotted deer
Rusa alfredi
Philippine deer
Rusa marianna
CompareSambar deer vs Javan rusaSambar deer vs Visayan spotted deerSambar deer vs Philippine deer
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
How heavy is a sambar deer?
An adult Sambar deer has a body mass of 177.5 kg, and our sources report up to 225 kg.
What does the sambar deer eat?
The sambar deer is a herbivore.
Is the sambar deer endangered?
The sambar deer is listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List, which is a threatened category.
How long does a sambar deer live?
The sambar deer has a lifespan of 26.4 years, with a highest reported value of 26.42 years.
How many young does a sambar deer have?
The sambar deer has 1 young per litter and 1 litter per year, after a gestation period of 247.8 days.
Which countries is the sambar deer recorded in?
Checklists record the sambar deer in Australia.
What kind of animal is the sambar deer?
The sambar deer is a mammal in the family Cervidae, order Artiodactyla.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sambar-deer
“Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sambar-deer.
@misc{sambar_deer_2026,
title = {Sambar deer (Rusa unicolor)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sambar-deer},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}