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LETTER OF THE MONTH
Did Victoria’s Barasingha Survive?
Q I read your article entitled Mysterious Deer At Eagle’s Peak in an old copy of Sporting Shooter I was given recently with great interest. About ten years ago I disturbed a large dark-coloured stag which let out a loud scream before running off. He had a stockier build than a sambar. His antlers resembled a sambar’s, but had two more points. But the feature I noticed most was the neck of the stag had a mane like a horse. Before I could get a shot at him he ran off, but he was light yellow under his tail. After reading your article I believe the animal may have been a barasingha. What do you think?
Samual Walters
I was gratified to hear of your sighting of a barasingha as I had begun to think they may have died out or been bred out, but while sambar hinds will associate with barasingha, sambar stags never do. This may be why they may still roam the Victorian alps to this very day. The stag you saw appears to be identical to the one I saw over 50 years ago at Eagle’s Peak. According to Arthur Bentley “liberations took place in the mountainous parts of Gippsland and some years later they had penetrated
