Sri Lankan sambar deer
| Sambar | |
|---|---|
| Stag/male | |
| Doe/female both in Kanha National Park, Madhya Pradesh, India | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Genus: | Rusa |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | R. u. unicolor |
| Trinomial name | |
| Rusa unicolor unicolor (Kerr, 1792) | |
| Synonyms | |
| |
The Sri Lankan sambar or Indian sambar (Rusa unicolor unicolor), also known as ගෝනා (gōṇā) in Sinhala, is a subspecies of the sambar that lives in India and Sri Lanka. British explorers and planters referred to it, erroneously, as an elk, leading to place names such as Elk Plain.