A critically endangered deer fawn has been born at Longleat as part of an international captive breeding programme.
Pere David’s deer are originally from China and at one time there were only 18 left in the world.
The week-old fawn is the first to be born at the Wiltshire safari park this year and delighted keepers say it is doing well.
“Pere David’s deer is a prime example of the importance of captive breeding programmes run by zoos and safari parks – without which it would almost certainly have become extinct,” said keeper Ian Turner.
The species is named after the French Jesuit missionary and naturalist, Père Armand David who first spotted it in 1865 on the grounds of an Imperial Park near Beijing.
Over the following years, several pairs were transported from China to Woburn in Bedfordshire, where they bred successfully.
In 1900 a combination of severe flooding and the Boxer Rebellion wiped out the entire population in the Imperial Hunting Park, making the 18 animals sent to England the only ones left on the planet.
In 1986, 39 Père David’s deer, including four bred at Longleat, were released into the DaFeng Milu reserve near Beijing, close to where they had been found by Père David more than a century earlier.
Today there are more than 2,000 in the wild in China and an estimated 8,000 deer worldwide, making it one of the most successful reintroduction programmes ever.
