Sika deer

New breeding bull arrives

The sika herd is complete again! After thirty days in quarantine, a new breeding bull was recently integrated into the sika deer herd at Wildnispark Zurich. The bull originally comes from Ostrava Zoo in the Czech Republic and is two and a half years old. This means he is already fully grown; sika deer become sexually mature at 18 months.

The Wildnispark Zurich hopes that the new arrival from the Czech Republic will mean that this highly endangered species of deer will breed again next spring.

Sika deer at Langenberg Wildlife Park

Sika deer have been living at Langenberg Wildlife Park since 1990. This is the pure subspecies "Vietnam sika deer" (Cervus nippon pseudaxis). This species is extinct in the wild. Wildnispark Zurich participates in the European Endangered Species Programme (EEP) to ensure the survival of this deer species until suitable areas and conditions for reintroduction are available in its homeland. Regular offspring is therefore also very important. The previous breeding bull has not bred for several years and has now been replaced due to his advanced age.

Sika deer in Switzerland

Sika deer are originally a species of deer from East Asia. Nevertheless, there are free-ranging populations in Switzerland. In the 19th century, they were introduced as park game in Germany and other countries. Free-ranging populations were formed from escaped and released captive animals and have survived to this day in the Schaffhausen area.

Photo: Wildnispark Zurich, Fredy Tschui