Scanned San Diego Zoo Photos 1992-2001

sika deer (Cervus nippon)

Scanned San Diego Zoo photos

Can anyone identify these as to race or origin? The Japanese Sika we have wild in the UK have much smaller antler development.

At the time ZSSD had both Mandarin and Indochinese Sika. (They also had MacNeill's Red Deer which I was hoping you'd have a photo of), It could be either one, I'm leaning towards Indochinese myself, but that's not based on anything in particular.

I'd have to check on MacNeill's Red Deer photos...unfortunately as a general rule I used to not worry about subspecies when I was photographing, especially since I had to pay for film and developing so I was stingy with extra pictures. Of course this cost me from taking any pictures of the Bush Pigs they had on exhibit because at the time they shared species status with Red River Hogs.

Scanned San Diego zoo photos

I thought they might be Indochinese [pseudaxis], but even then, these are surely huge antlers for any race of Sika?

I believe they had Formosan at the time, and this looks more like a Formosan to me.

You know what, I take that back. Ituri corrected me, the WAP had Formosan. As the Indochinese is Cervus pseudaxis it would make sense since this looks like a false Axis.

jbnbsn99 said:

As the Indochinese is Cervus pseudaxis it would make sense since this looks like a false Axis.

Click to expand...

an Axis of Evil?

I always loved the antlers in this photo. They remind me of the Spiderman villain, Carnage, who is pretty damn evil!

Indochinese sounds right to me as well.

Also I checked on the MacNeill's Red Deer, and it doesn't look like I have any photos of those. I have Bactrian Deer, Barbary Red Deer, and Altai Wapiti at different times at either the Zoo or WAP.
Any clue what years the MacNeill's Red Deer were kept at the zoo. I didn't go to the Zoo between 2002 and 2010 (and thus never got to say goodbye to Horn and Hoof Mesa!)