Great photograph Chlidonias! I want to ask you, do you think that the Indian/mainland population of Axis axis are a separate subspecies from the Sri Lankan population? Many authorities see them as synonomys, but I cannot say that I agree with their assessment entirely, so knowing that you have been to both India and Sri Lanka, I want to ask you, morphologically and diagnostically, what specific differences have you noticed between the two subspecies?
Well I treat them as separate obviously (i.e. the title of the photo) but the subspecies may not be valid. I can't say I noticed any differences between the two countries. With some animals the visible differences between subspecies or populations are pretty clear but for others you might need to compare them directly which isn't possible in the wild. Chital would probably fall into the latter category.
