Deer of the World


Have you ever considered how many deer species there are in the world?

In North America we have the following free-ranging deer species, of which all but the sika deer are native:

  1. Wapiti (Cervus canadensis)
  2. Sika deer (Cervus nippon)
  3. Mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus)
  4. White-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus)
  5. Caribou (Rangifer tarandus)
  6. Moose (Alces alces)

So, if North America has 5 native species of deer, and there are 5 other continents in the world (excluding Antarctica), could there be 30 species?

There are 52 species! Don’t ask me to name them all.

The variation among deer is grand. 

The smallest deer is the northern pudu (Pudu mephistopheles) that is about 12” high and weighs about 11 lbs. It occurs in South America.

Pudu (Image by Angela from Pixabay)

The largest deer is the moose, which can be over 7 feet tall and typically weigh close to 1,000 pounds. The largest moose recorded in Maine weighed over 1,700 lbs! The distribution of moose is circumpolar, and they’re called elk in Scandinavia (yes, it can lead to confusion).

Antlers can be single-tined to multi-tined. Complex and palmated. And range from half an inch (tufted deer – they make up for it with the size of their canines) to over 6 feet (e.g., reindeer).

Tufted deer (Image by Mircea Iancu from Pixabay)

Socially, deer may have a solitary lifestyle (Chinese water deer), live in pairs (muntjacs) or small family groups (marsh deer), or form large herds (caribou).

In North America, we may think of deer as being ubiquitous despite the fact they were scarce 100 years ago. Worldwide, deer species are not doing so well. 

  • We know so little about 10 species that we don’t really know their population status
  • Of the 16 species classified as Least Concern, 6 have declining population trends
  • Of the 16 species classified Vulnerable, 15 have declining population trends

All this information (and more!) is compiled in a new book, Deer of the World, that required contributions by 160 authors from 30 countries and took 4 years to complete. It’s an indispensable resource for researchers. I helped write the chapter on white-tailed deer with help from colleagues in Canada, Mexico, Pennsylvania, and Texas and I have 51 more chapters to read…

–Duane Diefenbach

Correction: An earlier version of this post mistakenly listed northern pudu (Pudu mephistopheles) as a species found in China.

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