[The resource conservation and utilization of wild Sika deer in China]

There had once been six subspecies of Sika deer (Cervus nippon) in China, but now only three subspecies in wild, i.e. Northeast China, Sichuan and South China subspecies, and all the three subspecies lie in the endangered status. Most of population are very small, and their distribution ranges have already been broken up into many isolated patches, furthermore, their habitats have been deteriorating. So it is very necessary to enhance the protecting of wild sika deer. Some endangered and small populations of wild deer can be saved by inflows of domestic health deer. Wild deer can help farm deer to acquire some good characters again by interbreeding between them. So we think that the purposes of protecting wild population and developing domestic population can be achieved by cooperating between reserves and deer farms.