[1] Its name derives from the hog-like manner in which it runs through forests (with its head hung low), to ease ducking under obstacles instead of leaping over them, like most other deer.

Cervus porcinus was the scientific name used by Eberhard August Wilhelm von Zimmermann in 1777 and 1780, based on an earlier description of Indian hog deer brought to England from India.

They are very solidly built, with a long body and relatively short legs; the line of the back slopes upward from the shoulders to a high rump.

The Indian hog deer's coat is quite thick, and generally a uniform dark-brown in winter, except for the underparts of the body and legs, which are lighter in colour.

[12] The Indian hog deer's status in Pakistan is uncertain; it occurs in northern India, Nepal, southern Bhutan, Bangladesh, Myanmar and China's Yunnan Province, has been reintroduced to Thailand but is locally extinct in Laos and Vietnam.