water-loving mouse-deer dive for safety

Here’s a great piece of information on a biodiversity theme: The mouse-deer (a.k.a. chevrotains) not only like water and swim well, they also will dive readily. This story by BBC Earth News Editor Matt Walker describes new information on the underwater swimming of mountain mouse-deer in Sri Lanka. A Senior Ecologist for The Nature Conservancy, Erik Meijaard, was one of several people on hand in June 2008 who witnessed a mouse-deer attempt to escape them for about an hour by diving and remaining submerged. The animal was eventually captured and released.