Rusa

RUSA

Rusa may refer to:* Rusa , a genus of deer* Any of four kings of Urartu, an Iron Age kingdom in what is now Turkey and Armenia* Perodua Rusa, a microvan* Rusa , another name for the wine grape GewürztraminerRUSA may refer to:...

 is a genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

 of deer from southern Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. They have traditionally been included in Cervus

Cervus

Cervus is a genus of deer that primarily are native to Eurasia, although one species occurs in northern Africa and another in North America. In addition to the species presently placed in this genus, it has included a whole range of other species now commonly placed in other genera, but some of...

, and genetic

Genetics

Genetics , a discipline of biology, is the science of genes, heredity, and variation in living organisms....

 evidence suggests this may be more appropriate than their present placement in a separate genus.

Three of the four species have relatively small distributions in the Philippines

Philippines

The Philippines , officially known as the Republic of the Philippines , is a country in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. To its north across the Luzon Strait lies Taiwan. West across the South China Sea sits Vietnam...

 and Indonesia

Indonesia

Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, but the Sambar is more widespread, ranging from India

India

India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

 east and north to China

People's Republic of China

China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...

 and south to the Greater Sundas. All are threatened

Threatened species

Threatened species are any speciesg animals, plants, fungi, etc.) which are vulnerable to endangerment in the near future.The World Conservation Union is the foremost authority on threatened species, and treats threatened species not as a single category, but as a group of three categories,...

 by habitat loss and hunting in their native ranges, but three of the species have also been introduced

Introduced species

An introduced species — or neozoon, alien, exotic, non-indigenous, or non-native species, or simply an introduction, is a species living outside its indigenous or native distributional range, and has arrived in an ecosystem or plant community by human activity, either deliberate or accidental...

 elsewhere.

Species

• Rusa alfredi - Philippine Spotted Deer
• Rusa marianna - Philippine Brown Deer or Philippine Sambar
• Rusa timorensis - Rusa Deer or Sunda Sambar
• Rusa unicolor - Sambar