Talk:Père David's deer

Literal meaning of 麋鹿
I think 麋 is just a native word that specifically refers to this animal. Using the word to mean elk developed later. KangXi dictionary indicate 麋 means either "water animal" or "grassy riverbank". The water animal most likely refer to this animal because the Eurasian elk is rare in China and do not live near rivers. --Yel D&#39;ohan (talk) 17:11, 16 February 2020 (UTC)

Naming
Would it be worth noting that in French, père means father? Vltava  68  01:42, 23 December 2008 (UTC) Yup! Go ahead, it's fine.-Warriorscourge (talk) 04:56, 25 December 2008 (UTC)

Extinction Status
As of 2 days ago, a program was initiated to return the milu to the wild. I'm not sure whether or not we should change the extinction status as such, since several animals are already semi-wild. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.17.203.6 (talk) 03:42, 12 February 2009 (UTC)
 * I think it is best to stick with the most current IUCN status for these animals. When that officially changes, then the article should be updated. I think IUCN would wait more than just a few days (or even a few months) after captive-bred specimens were released into the wild before deciding they were no longer extinct in the wild. Would probably need at least a few generations of successful breeding in the wild. I am a little confused, though, about conservation status, as article says two herds were reintroduced in the 1980s, one to a park, one to a game preserve, and both populations seem to be doing well, yet IUCN listing is Extinct in the Wild. Do a park and game preserve not count as "the wild"? Mmyers1976 (talk) 17:01, 12 March 2009 (UTC)

I don't think it really matters what the IUCN says in regards to them being "extinct in the wild" when there are three herds surviving out in the wild. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.191.176.207 (talk) 12:02, 4 August 2009 (UTC)

Japanese and Chinese Names
How come these are written with the same characters?

(Traditional Chinese:四不像, pinyin: sì bú xiàng), and in Japanese: 四不像 (shifuzou):

P0mbal (talk) 18:27, 23 February 2010 (UTC)
 * Because the Japanese borrowed the Hanzi to use as Kanji: they're notorious for that, but why is it supposed to be a problem?--Mr Fink (talk) 18:37, 23 February 2010 (UTC)


 * Thank you for the explanation, I did not know that. P0mbal (talk) 18:57, 23 February 2010 (UTC)

U. S. contribution
When I hunted YO Ranch in Texas in the 1990s they had this particular deer on the ranch and the owner's son mentioned that China had recently purchased some of them for re-introduction into China. That the YO Ranch has or at least had these deer is also mentioned at Charles Schreiner III who was the owner of YO Ranch when I visited the ranch and when these deer were there. I wonder why the U. S. contribution to saving this animal from extinction is not mentioned here in this article? Rjr1960 (talk) 10:57, 20 August 2020 (UTC)

Contradiction
If the deer is listed as extinct in wild, why does article state "As of 2020, the wild population in China was estimated 2825 individuals, with a further 7380 in various nature reserves in China."? 2603:7080:AB3F:FF53:8187:2162:6142:D5EB (talk) 03:40, 11 January 2022 (UTC)
 * I think it's partly because the IUCN has not yet updated the Pere David's deer's conservation status, and partly because the nature reserve denizens are only semi-wild, being descended from captive specimens.--Mr Fink (talk) 04:18, 11 January 2022 (UTC)

It is mentioned in the article - when the IUCN last updated the species there were still concerns about the long-term viability of the species due a lack of genetic diversity and deconditioning. The next Red List update is to come up in December and we'll have to see at that time if the species has been re-assessed yet. 2600:6C44:507F:D061:826:7DA2:111F:4D07 (talk) 11:47, 8 September 2022 (UTC)

Père David for whom the deer is named
I do not believe the description of Pere David's involvement in this story is represented correctly. I have always understood it that the Père David's deer is named for the missionary to China who first noticed the decline of the deer and asked Chinese leadership (the Emperor? I think) for permission to take some live deer and try to rebuild their numbers. I always liked this especially because it represented such a good cultural exchange between the 2 countries. The article makes it sound like all David did was send a dead deer to someone. I don't think this is correct. I tried to find sources and update the article but there's been an issue w my account's IP address that's never been resolved, so I can't. Please someone edit this article. I initially got my info on the history from the Children's series "Wildlife Fact File" books, which isn't a scholarly source but I believe it to be correct 2001:5B0:270C:AC48:F4FD:8FAC:25AA:11D3 (talk) 13:28, 3 April 2023 (UTC)
 * As it happens, the existing ref says "some hinds and skeletons of..." so I think we can expand that without needing a further one. Anaxial (talk) 18:02, 3 April 2023 (UTC)