Persian fallow deer
| Persian fallow deer | |
|---|---|
| A Persian fallow deer buck at Carmel Hai-Bar Nature Reserve in Israel, 2007 | |
CITES Appendix I
| |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Chordata |
| Class: | Mammalia |
| Order: | Artiodactyla |
| Family: | Cervidae |
| Genus: | Dama |
| Species: | D. mesopotamica
|
| Binomial name | |
| Dama mesopotamica (Brooke, 1875)
| |
| Distribution (est.) of the Persian fallow deer species in the 19th century | |
| Synonyms | |
|
Dama dama mesopotamica | |
The Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) is a species of deer that once inhabited most of West Asia, but is currently only found in the wild in Iran and Israel. Since 2008, it has been classified as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List. Owing to a focused program of captive breeding, the population of Persian fallow deer has rebounded from only a handful of deer in the 1960s to over a thousand deer in the 2010s. The species was re-introduced to Israel in 1978, thereafter reaching a stable wild population there, while it continues to occur naturally in Iran. There are smaller populations of Persian fallow deer in captivity at European zoos, particularly in Germany.