Extinct in the Wild
Père David's deer
Elaphurus davidianus
Père David's deer is a mammal in the family Cervidae (order Artiodactyla) — Elaphurus davidianus, recorded as Extinct in the Wild and tied to China.
Appearance
The coat is reddish tan in the summer, changing to a dull gray in the winter. There is a mane on the neck and throat and a black dorsal stripe running along the cervicothoracic spine.
The adult Père David's deer reaches a head-and-body length of up to 1.9–2.2 meters (6.2–7.2 ft) and stands about 1.2 meters (3.9 ft) tall at the shoulder. Weight is between 135 and 200 kilograms (300 and 440 lb).
Range and habitat
Père David's deer, also known as the milu or elaphure, is a deer native to the subtropical river valleys of China. Père David's deer were hunted almost to extinction in their native China by the late 19th century, but a number were taken to zoos in France and Germany and the deer was bred successfully in captivity.
In 2020, the wild population in China was estimated at 2,825 individuals, with a further 7,380 in various nature reserves in China.
Habitat labels include shrubland and forest.
Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.
Breeding
For Père David's deer the stag initiates the breeding season with the rutting. The hind has a typical behavior of being solitary.
Père David's deer are considered seasonal breeders because three out of four calves are born during April in captive European populations. The breeding season is 160 days with the mating season usually being in June and July.
In crisis
According to official data, the total population of the species has exceeded 8,000 in China.
Père David's deer is Extinct in the Wild on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.
Sources
Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Père David's deer, Wikidata item Q207906. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.
