An Asian deer species has been in the news, giving hope for conservationists.
Due to several centuries of overhunting, the numbers of Pere David’s deer, a rare species endemic to China, had plummeted drastically by the 19th Century. Around the 1860s, the only population alive was at the Emperor’s imperial hunting grounds in Beijing. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the species went extinct in the wild because “in the heat of the Boxer Rebellion, the last remaining deer were pillaged and killed by European troops occupying the imperial hunting grounds. Thankfully, a few decades before the extinction, a French missionary and zoologist named Pere David (after whom the deer is named) had requested Beijing to send a few of those animals to Europe. (Some reports suggest that the animals were smuggled.) And that changed the course of the animal’s destiny.
Throughout the 20th Century, these animals were captive-bred in Europe, and their numbers increased gradually. In fact, in 1985, some of these deer were donated to Beijing for re-wilding (planned re-introduction of animals into the wild). And China took over from there. Over the last 35 years, the deer were sent to more than 75 locations across the country, and their numbers today have grown to several thousand. According to a media report, their “comeback from the brink of extinction marks a rare success for China’s conservation efforts, which have long faced criticism for focusing on only a handful of flagship species. This success story is also seen as something rare given how China’s exponential growth over the last few decades has been adversely impacting its biodiversity. “The country now has more than a thousand species that are fast disappearing due to developers encroaching on habitats, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.”
However, the story does not end here. Due to the lack of genetic diversity, these deer are more vulnerable to disease and shorter life spans. And yet, “small groups of the deer are now being released back into the wild, and sightings are being reported around the country”, sparking hope for the species.
Picture Credit : Google
