Yezo sika deer

Yezo sika deer
A group of Yezo sika deer
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Infraclass: Placentalia
Order: Artiodactyla
Family: Cervidae
Genus: Cervus
Species:
C. nippon
Subspecies:
C. n. yesoensis
Trinomial name
Cervus nippon yesoensis
Heude, 1884

The Yezo sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis,[1][2] Japanese: エゾシカ / 蝦夷鹿, romanized: yezoshika,[3] Ainu: ユク yuk[4][5]) is a subspecies of sika deer that inhabits the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.[6]

The Hokkaido sika are endemic, although it is not known whether they originated there or migrated from Honshū or areas further south. It is thought that they may have traveled across the Tsugaru Strait between the islands. Genetic study has shown that the separation of the sika population occurred less than half a million years ago.[7] It is possible that northern sika deer may be more closely related to yezo sika deer than to other sika deer.[8] The indigenous Ainu people of Hokkaido have hunted them for centuries and relied on them as a major food source.

Description

The Hokkaido sika deer is one of the largest of all 14 sika deer subspecies[9] and the largest of the subspecies native to Japan.[10] A larger body could be an adaptation to Hokkaido's cold winters.[11] Mature stags approach (and sometimes exceed) 200 kg (440 lb) in the fall.[12] Measurements of 309 adult Hokkaido sika deer taken in 2001 resulted in the following weights: 102.8 to 151.0 kilograms (226.6 to 332.9 lb) in adult males and 68.0 to 99.8 kilograms (149.9 to 220.0 lb) in adult females. Weight showed distinct seasonal variation.[11]

They sport the largest antlers of the sika deer, with lengths often over 89 centimetres (35 in); the longest recorded specimen had antlers measuring 112 centimetres (44 in). According to the USA-based Safari Club International (SCI) the Hokkaido sika deer produces the highest antler scores, although very few have been listed.[13]

Sika deer moult twice every year: into their summer coat in May and June, and into their winter coat in September and October.[10] Their summer coat is reddish-brown with numerous white spots, while their winter coat is grey-brown. Males shed their antlers in March and regrow them over the summer. They are fully formed by August and shed the velvet in September in time for the breeding season (rut) from late September to November.[6][10]

Behavior

Gestation is estimated to be 216 to 260 days and usually a single young (called fawn) is born from May to November.[6]

Habitat

Like all sika deer they favour forest edges. Additionally, on Hokkaido they can often be found in grasslands, meadows and wetland reed beds. They migrate seasonally to avoid deep snow.[10] These migrations range from 7.2 to 101.7 kilometres (4.5 to 63.2 mi).[14]

Population

Yezo sika deer is the only ungulate species living on Hokkaido. Before the island was extensively settled by the Japanese from 1868 onwards, sika deer were widely distributed. Due to overhunting in the late 1800s and heavy snow in 1879 and 1881[15] the population massively decreased and only recovered from this genetic bottleneck in the 1950s. Since then there has been extensive population growth. This can be attributed to various reasons such as the extinction of one of their main predators, the Hokkaido wolf (Canis lupus hattai), in 1889, hunting regulations, and environmental changes due to human cultivation.[16] Furthermore, climatic changes resulting in warmer winters with little snow have benefitted population explosion.[15]

This overpopulation has led to widespread damages to agriculture and forestry as well as increased deer vehicle collisions, and has led to the extension of the hunting area to reduce the population size.[15][17]

References

  1. ↑ Pierre Marie Heude, 1884. Catalogue des cerfs tachetés (sikas) du Musée de Zi-ka-wei, ou notes préparatoires à la monographie de ce group. Mémoires concernant l'Histoire Naturelle de l'Empire Chinois 1:1–12.
  2. ↑ "Taxonomy browser (Cervus nippon yesoensis)".
  3. ↑ Hai, Bui Hoang. "Japanese Translator | RomajiDesu!!". www.romajidesu.com. Retrieved 2026-04-05.
  4. ↑ Bunrui Ainugo Jiten Note: according to this, it originally referred to all important game.
  5. ↑ An Ainu-English-Japanese dictionary (including a grammar of the Ainu language) Note: this doesn't specify the subspecies.
  6. 1 2 3 Ōdachi, Satoshi, ed. (2009). The wild mammals of Japan: memorial project of the Ninth International Mammological Congress, which was held in 2005 in Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan by the Mammological Society of Japan (1st ed.). Kyoto: Shoukadoh. ISBN 978-4-87974-626-9.
  7. ↑ Nagata, Junko; Masuda, Ryuichi; Tamate, Hidetoshi B.; Hamasaki, Shin-ichiro; Ochiai, Keiji; Asada, Masahiko; Tatsuzawa, Shirow; Suda, Kazuki; Tado, Hiroyuki; Yoshida, Michihiro C. (December 1999). "Two Genetically Distinct Lineages of the Sika Deer, Cervus nippon, in Japanese Islands: Comparison of Mitochondrial D-Loop Region Sequences". Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution. 13 (3): 511–519. Bibcode:1999MolPE..13..511N. doi:10.1006/mpev.1999.0668. PMID 10620409.
  8. ↑ Tamate, H. B.; Tsuchiya, T. (May 1995). "Mitochondrial DNA Polymorphism in Subspecies of the Japanese Sika Deer, Cervus nippon". Journal of Heredity. 86 (3): 211–215. doi:10.1093/oxfordjournals.jhered.a111564. PMID 7608513.
  9. ↑ Matsumoto, Yuki; Nagata, Junco; Matsuura, Yukiko; Iijima, Hayato (2026-04-01). "A reference-grade genome assembly data of sika deer in Hokkaido, Japan, Cervus nippon yesoensis". Data in Brief. 65 112423. Bibcode:2026DIB....6512423M. doi:10.1016/j.dib.2025.112423. ISSN 2352-3409. PMC 12877825. PMID 41657413.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Brazil, Mark (2022). Japan: the natural history of an Asian Archipelago. WILDGuides. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0-691-17506-5.
  11. 1 2 Suzuki, Masatsugu; Onuma, Manabu; Yokoyama, Mayumi; Kaji, Koich; Yamanaka, Masami; Ohtaishi, Noriyuki (2001). "Body size, sexual dimorphism, and seasonal mass fluctuations in a larger sika deer subspecies, the Hokkaido sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis Heude, 1884)". Canadian Journal of Zoology. 79 (1): 154–159. Bibcode:2001CaJZ...79..154S. doi:10.1139/z00-181. ISSN 0008-4301.
  12. ↑ Sika Deer: Biology and Management of Native and Introduced Populations. Springer Science & Business Media. 2008. p. 28. ISBN 9784431094296.
  13. ↑ Thomas, Murray (2019-09-11). "Sika (Cervus nippon)". Wild Deer & Hunting Adventures. Retrieved 2026-04-05.
  14. ↑ Dhakal, Thakur; Jang, Gab-Sue; Kim, Minhan; Kim, Ji Hyung; Park, JoongYeol; Lim, Sang-Jin; Park, Yung-Chul; Lee, Do-Hun (2023). "Habitat utilization distribution of sika deer (Cervus nippon)". Heliyon. 9 (10) e20793. Bibcode:2023Heliy...920793D. doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20793. ISSN 2405-8440. PMC 10585228. PMID 37867813.
  15. 1 2 3 Nabata, Daichi; Kaji, Koichi; Nagata, Junco; Masuda, Ryuichi (2007-03-01). "Genetic structure changes of expanding sika deer (Cervus nippon) populations in central and western Hokkaido, revealed by mitochondrial DNA analysis". Mammal Study. 32 (1): 17. doi:10.3106/1348-6160(2007)32[17:GSCOES]2.0.CO;2. ISSN 1343-4152. Retrieved 2026-04-04.
  16. ↑ Takafumi, Hino; Kamii, Tatsuya; Murai, Takunari; Yoshida, Ryoto; Sato, Atsuki; Tachiki, Yasuyuki; Akamatsu, Rika; Yoshida, Tsuyoshi (2017-10-12). "Seasonal and year-round use of the Kushiro Wetland, Hokkaido, Japan by sika deer (Cervus nippon yesoensis)". PeerJ. 5 e3869. doi:10.7717/peerj.3869. ISSN 2167-8359. PMC 5641432. PMID 29038752.
  17. ↑ Iijima, Hayato; Nagata, Junco; Izuno, Ayako; Uchiyama, Kentaro; Akashi, Nobuhiro; Fujiki, Daisuke; Kuriyama, Takeo (2023-03-09). "Current sika deer effective population size is near to reaching its historically highest level in the Japanese archipelago by release from hunting rather than climate change and top predator extinction". The Holocene. 33 (6): 718–727. Bibcode:2023Holoc..33..718I. doi:10.1177/09596836231157063. ISSN 0959-6836.
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