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Père David's deer (Elaphurus davidianus) is a species of deer known only in captivity. It prefers marshland, and is believed to be native to the subtropics. It grazes on a mixture of grass and water plants.
Adults weigh 150-200 kg (330-440 pounds). They have a nine-month gestation period, and one or two fawns are born at a time. They reach maturity at about 14 months, and have been known to reach the age of 23 years.
Père David's deer has a long tail, wide hooves, and branched antlers. The Chinese name 四不象 translates as "four unlikes," because the animals were seen as having the horns of a stag, the neck of a camel, the foot of a cow, and the tail of an ass. Adults have summer coats that are bright red with a dark dorsal stripe, and dark gray winter coats. The fawns are spotted.
These animals were first made known to Western science in the 19th century, by Father Armand David, a French missionary working in China. At the time, the only surviving herd was in a preserve belonging to the Chinese emperor. The last herd of Père David's deers that remained in China were eaten by Western and Japanese troops that were present at the time of the Boxer Rebellion.
After Father David publicized their existence, a few animals were given to European countries, and bred there. After the remaining population in China died out, the remaining deers in Europe were gathered to England to be bred for the preservation of the species. The current population stems from this herd.
These deer are now found in zoos around the world, and a herd of Père David's deer was reintroduced to Dafeng Reserve, China in the late 1980s. They are classified as "critically endangered" in the wild, but do not appear to have suffered from a genetic bottleneck because of small population size.
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