(EN) Père David’s deer

In the wild, this deer had been extinct for centuries. Only in the Imperial Nanhaizi Park in China these special deer survived. There they were discovered by Père (Father) David in 1865. He managed to export some animals to London and Paris, which turned out to be very lucky, because 30 years after his description, all the animals in China perished due to flooding and political unrest (Boxer Rebellion). The English Duke Bedfort, who obtained some of the European offspring for his wildlife park, managed to keep this population alive throughout the world wars. Animals from European zoos were then able to make their way back to China in 1985 and 1987. In 2015, 53 herds existed there. Today, the world population is back up to over 5000 animals!