THE PRESENT STATUS OF WILD SIKA DEER IN JIANGXI

The wild sika deer of Jiangxi belongs to the subspecies Cervus nippon kopschi Swinhoe. They were distributed in most parts of Jiangxi before 1930, and distributed in north Jiangxi before 1940. Nowadays it is in Pengze County that we find the wild sika deer again. In December, 1979 we obtained an antler in Taohong Mountain（Pengze County）. Aecording to the data of our survey and the deer hunters, there were about 40 deer on there. In the 1960’s, the annual number of deer killed was above ten.
The sika deer in Pengze and in south Anhui are the remaining species from one origin. The reasons for the survival of the species to date may-be as follows:
1. The exterior interference of Taohong Mountain is lesser.
2. The place is very suitable for deer to live in, for example: The temperature is lower, the humidity is higher, and the length of cleavers mainly formed by Theraeda triandra is nearly 1 m. high.
3. The source of foods is very rich, and easily obtainable for the deer.
The nature enemy of deer is the Asiatic wild dog（Cuon alpinus）, and wolf（Canis lupus）.