Thought so. Another species now very rare in the UK and I think the founder stock was only ever at Howletts/PL anyway. I can't remember seeing them there recently but maybe PL still have some?
Without ISIS its difficult to know if anywhere else in the UK still has Sambar.
Zootiereliste states that there are Indian Sambar (Rusa unicolor niger) at both Port Lympne and Houghton Hall in Norfolk. The only other Sambar that apparently are to be found now in Europe are Malayan (R.u.equina) at East Berlin and Altenfelden in Austria.
Yes, I think Houghton Hall have several exotic Deer species acquired fairly recently, including some Barasingha from Port Lympne also. I believe they also had the herd of Axis Deer(circa 20) from Cricket St Thomas when it closed.
Houghton is a huge stately home secreted away miles from anywhere really, and with a large almost square-shaped Deer Park. There are(or were) large herds of both spotted and white fallow deer. I think they may have some Prezwalski Horses as well. Its all a completely private estate still.
I'm glad to hear Port Lympne have still got Sambar themselves, presumably some of those that used to be in the main paddock at Howletts, which no longer has them. I think they formed part of John Aspinall's very early collection and could have come from the closed Maidstone Zoo. I rather suspect no new blood has been added since as nowhere else (bar Whipsnade in the past?) in the UK has had them afaik- at least I have never seen them anywhere else. Or did he get them from Whipsnade perhaps?
