Species profile: Sika deer

Hello again, welcome back to animals under threat. Today, we will be covering the Sika deer (Cervus Nippon).


The Sika deer is a member of a group of deer known as “true deer” meaning it belongs to the genus (Cervus). It is native to East Asia including Vietnam, China, Korea to Russia and continental islands of Taiwan and the Japanese Archipelago (McCullough et al, 2009). The Sika deer is characterized by the white spot pattern on its back and the colour of the fur can be mahogany, black or white (rare). In winter, the coat becomes darker in colour, shaggier and males forms a mane on the back of their neck. Like most deer species, males have antlers and use them to fight other males for a harem of females (McCullough et al, 2009).

Male Sika deer (right) by Quartl and female Sika deer (left) by unknown

Sika deer prefers temperate and subtropical forest for their habitat as they forage on patchy clearing in the forest while population of introduced Sika deer in Europe have been found foraging in similar areas.

 

Populations of introduced Sika deer in Europe, Eastern United States, New Zealand, Australia and many other places considers the Sika deer to be a pest (NOGUCHI, 2017, while in China and the Japanese Archipelago, they are considered to be sacred (McCullough et al, 2009). Antlers from Sika deer’s have been used in traditional medicine for over two thousand years leading to Sika deer’s been farmed and hunted for their antlers. They have also been hunted for their meat as it is used in many dishes (Sun et al, 2018).

 

Sika deer are also affect by Brucellosis (Brucella bovis), a zoonotic disease that affects the majority of the deer species worldwide. It is a major infectious disease that can affect the deer reproductive system leading to a loss of viable breeding males (Liu et al, 2017). It can also be transferred to humans as it is a zoonotic disease.

 

That’s it for the Sika deer, next time we will be covering an interesting marsupial that earned the nickname “banded anteater”.

 

References

 

Liu, Q., Wei, J., Sun, Q., Wang, B., Wang, Y., Hu, Y. & Wu, W. 2017, "Detection of Brucellosis in Sika Deer (Cervus nippon) through Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP)", JOURNAL OF WILDLIFE DISEASES, vol. 53, no. 3, pp. 612-615.

 

McCullough, D.R., Takatsuki, S. & Kaji, K. 2009;2008;, Sika Deer: Biology and Management of Native and Introduced Populations, Springer London, Limited, Guildford;Ipswich;.

 

NOGUCHI, J. 2017, "Overabundance of sika deer and immunocontraception", Journal of Reproduction and Development, vol. 63, no. 1, pp. 13-16.

 

Sun, H., Yang, H., Ruan, H., Li, W., He, X., Wang, L., Liu, F. & Zhang, J. 2018, "The Protective Effect of Sika Deer Antler Protein on Gentamicin-Induced Nephrotoxicity in Vitro and in Vivo", Cellular Physiology and Biochemistry, vol. 50, no. 3, pp. 841-850.

 

Picture references

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sika_deer