Tibetan red deer

Tibetan red deer
Scientific classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Genus: Cervus
Species:
Subspecies:
C. c. wallichi
Trinomial name
Cervus canadensis wallichi
(G. Cuvier, 1823)
Synonyms
  • Cervus canadensis affinis

The Tibetan red deer (Cervus canadensis wallichi) also known as shou, is a subspecies of elk/wapiti native to the southern Tibetan highlands and Bhutan. Once believed to be near-extinct, its population has increased to over 8,300, the majority of which live in a 120,000-hectare nature reserve established in 1993 in Riwoqê County, Qamdo Prefecture, Tibet Autonomous Region, China. Some have been kept at the beginning of the 20th century in London, and in a small zoo south of Lhasa.