Barbary deer

Barbary deer
30-11-2009

As the only endemic deer species in Africa, and locally threatened, i would have thought there would be some in a European collection, but according to ISIS there is not a single specimen.
What are other zoochatters thoughts on this situation?
Personally speaking, i would like to see them here in the UK, i realise at the end of the day they are a sub species of red deer, and probably many a regular zoo punter wouldn't give them a second look, but i think a lightly forested exhibit, mixed with a troop of Barbary macaque could give the regular visitor a feeling for the foothills of the Atlas mountains, and not the desert that everyone thinks encroaches the whole of north Africa.
As well as showing the ONLY African species of deer, surely worth the enclosure space for that alone!

30-11-2009

I certainly think there should be a few 'back-up' groups breeding in captivity(or semi captivity) as insurance against the dwindling wild stock.

I can't see any UK collection ever taking the trouble to import them though-unless it was somewhere 'specialist' like Port Lympne. And climatically they might be better suited to being kept in a Mediterranean- based collection?