A video of a muntjac deer eating its food has been making some rounds on Reddit lately. In particular, Redditors are calling its species, “alien-looking.” Read on to find out why.
‘Alien-looking’
On the r/awwwtf subreddit, Redditor u/pau1rw shared a video of a muntjac deer being fed by an unidentified person. Basically, it has caught the attention of netizens because of its odd-looking features, which they associate with aliens.
According to the post, muntjac deer have on their face two sets of scent glands, which really look odd, a reason why netizens called the animal “alien-looking.”
There’s the preorbital glands, sitting just in front of their eyes, and these are still separate from the frontal glands sitting on their foreheads. These are specifically used for marking territory and communication.
A Redditor is loving what they are seeing, saying, “I love it. It makes me wonder what soft-tissue structures fossil species had.”
“So that’s what’s driving all those flying saucers around,” dieyan1967, meanwhile, quipped and pointed out.
From China
It has been said that muntjac deer were introduced to England all the way from China. Nowadays, it is a common animal across southeast England found in woodland, parkland, and even gardens.
Muntjac deer are notorious browsers. They are fond of eating the shoots from shrubs, woodland herbs, and brambles. Their clearing of woodland has been linked to the declines of species like nightingales.
This deer species is also known as “barking deer” because of their dog-like calls.
Spotting a muntjac deer is easy. They are about the same size as a medium dog, and are characterized by gingery-brown – with pale undersides – darker stripes in their faces, as well as tiny, single-pointed antlers.
