The sambar is often called the "eyes and ears of the forest". They possess remarkably large, bat-like ears that can rotate nearly 180 degrees, allowing them to pinpoint the muffled footfalls of a stalking predator long before it is visible. Their sense of smell is equally acute, often detecting "predator scent" on the wind from hundreds of meters away. Because of their sheer size, they are one of the few prey animals that provide enough caloric value to sustain a breeding tigress and her growing cubs. Without a healthy population of Indian sambar, the population density of apex predators like the Bengal tiger would drastically decline.