@Ituri Honestly they could be but we were told at the time I was taking the photo, that a small number of Bactrian Wapiti were being held in the same habitat as the Scimitar just temporarily. So maybe I could be wrong.
@Ituri is correct, these are two of the handful of remaining Barbary deer.
It is true that a portion of the Bactrian deer herd is being held in this enclosure as well. The Bactrian deer are going to be a lot paler, sandier color.
This a beautiful photo, though, @Julio C Castro! A wonderful tribute to an animal that will very soon be gone to almost certainly never be seen again in American zoos.
@Kudu21 thank you for the confirmation, I felt like I was a bit crazy thinking I heard Bactrian Wapiti in the North African habitat and thank you so much! I love photographing ungulates and they’ve become one of my favorite groups of animals to photograph, I hope they’re around a bit longer for me to see