Pére David's Deer Pictures
Here is our collection of Pére
David's deer pictures. We love Pére David's deer photos and we are going to
increase the number of Pére David's deer pictures in this section as soon as possible.
Feel free to download any of the deer pictures for your personal use. Here is a bit of
information on the Pére David's Deer.
Pére David's Deer have a
fascinating and unusual history, becoming extinct in the wild in their native home, but
being saved due to captive breeding by a British Aristocrat. The Pére David's Deer was
discovered by western science in 1865. The Jesuit Priest and famous French biologist,
Armand David, was visiting China, and heard about an unusual animal kept in the Emperors
private garden known as the Forbidden Palace, to which there was no access. He bribed some
guards and was able to study the animals, which he thought was a type of Reindeer and
which subsequently were named after him. These animals had already become extinct in there
natural home in the wild, and only survived in the emperors private collection. Some years
later the Chinese Emperor gave a small number of the deer as a present to France, Germany
and Britain. Although the deer in France and Germany soon died out, the British animals
fell into the hands of the Duke of Bedford, who kept the animals on his Woburn estate.
Here the animals thrived and a successful herd remains to the present day. However, the
animals did not fare so well in there native home, becoming extinct in the Forbidden
Palace in 1939. Other herds were established using animals from the Woburn herd, and now
Pére David's Deer are a common zoo and park animal. Some have been returned to China.
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