Saved from extinction
Milu deer first appeared about 3 million years ago in the warm and wet areas of middle and eastern China. After the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 BC), the number of milu declined dramatically because of extensive hunting and reclamation of wetlands. Only l20 milu were left in Nanhaizi, the royal hunting park in southeastern Beijing, by the end of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).
In 1865, French missionary Pere Armand David paid a Nanhaizi Park guard some silver for a skull and two pelts. David took the remains to Paris, where expert Milne Edwards identified the milu as a new species and named it Pere David's deer. Over the following chaotic decades, the deer became extinct in China and only 18 remained in European zoos.
Herbrand Russell, the 11th Duke of Bedford, brought them to Woburn Abbey in Britain. The current 3,000 milu, living in 206 parks and reserves around the world, are all the descendants of these 18 deer.
In 1985, Lord Tavistock, the 14th Duke of Bedford, sent 22 milu to Beijing and Shanghai before sending more in following years. Now there are three major nature reserves for milu: Dafeng of East China's Jiangsu Province; Nanhaizi Park, and Shishou in Central China's Hubei Province. About 2,000 milu live in China today.
China Daily
(China Daily 05/22/2007 page20)
