AquaZoo welcomes a male Father David deer

AquaZoo welcomed a male Padre-David deer in early September. To the park in Leeuwarden came two female Padre-David deer earlier this summer.

Father David deer are extinct in the wild. Head zookeeper William Kreijkes therefore expresses his delight at the arrival of the buck: "We hope that in time we will be able to contribute to maintaining a healthy population of this species, which would no longer exist without zoo efforts."

Father David deer used to be commonly found in wetlands and swamps in China. However, due to intensive hunting, this species was almost extinct by the nineteenth century. In 1865, only a pack still lived in the garden of the Chinese emperor. Here the French Father Armand David saw them and gave them their European name.

Retained
After Father David's visit, a number of deer were sent to European zoos. When the last of the Father David deer living there were eaten in China after the Boxer Rebellion in 1900, only sixteen of this species remained in Europe. These were brought together by the Duke of Bedford on his English estate. After World War II, the animals were housed in various European zoos. In this way, the species was preserved and even grew considerably. There are now about 1,500 Father David deer worldwide, scattered among zoos and some reserves in China.

There is a European management program for these deer. Within these programs, animals are exchanged with other European zoos to preserve the species in zoos and to ensure the genetic variety of the population. The deer at AquaZoo also fall under this. The hinds came from the Czech Republic, where they were born at Ostrava Zoo last year. The buck moved to AquaZoo from Pairi Daiza.

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