Description/Behavior: The Balabac Chevrotain or Mouse Deer is active at night. During the day, it stays in deeply shaded spots, among the dense vegetations, inside original forests, but may also be found inside the second growth forests close to Virgin forest. The Deer is difficult to find in the forest during the day, but at night it roams around the cleared areas, even close to the seashore. Mouse Deer are commonly encountered along the roadsides at night with the use of flashlights. The eyes flash very brightly once caught in the beam and the deer normally stares for sometime before fleeing. The Mouse Deer feeds mainly on leaves

Description: Small, general coloration brown with the back and sides washed with jet black hairs with white bases, the dull orange and with broad black tips; nape with blackish lines but not distinct; face and sides of neck, mixed black and dull fulvous; a naked glandular patch on chin, between rami of lower jaw; white throat bands of very narrow, but sharply defined stripes; anteriorly, on each side of naked space, a short, clear white stripe, ending abruptly at about level of hind border of eye: stripes separated from each other and from the posterior stripes by a dark brown space; posteriorly median narrow white stripe bounded on each side, between lateral white stripes, by deep jet-black; behind, the stripes separated from the white patch between the forelimbs, by a broad blackish band; hairs on lower parts, especially on belly, with broad black tips; inner sides of thighs, white.

Measurements

External Head: Head and Body: Male = 410mm / Female = 400mm
Tail: Male: 80mm / Female: 75mm
Hind Foot: Male: 110mm / Female: 115mm
Ear: Male: 27mm / Female: 26mm
Height at Shoulders: Male: 180mm / Female: 177mm
Threats:
Conservation Efforts/Measures:
Photograph Information: Courtesy of Palawan.com