Sika deer, the graceful spotted deer of Japanese and Chinese art, originally were native to Asia from far-east Russia to Vietnam to the islands of Japan and Taiwan. They are widely raised in captivity to supply velvet antler for traditional medicine. They also were introduced to Europe, North America, and New Zealand, where they compete or interbreed with native deer. Sika deer typically occupy lowland hardwood forests with low winter snow depths, where they thrive in sites disturbed by fire, storm, or logging. In high numbers they can severely impact vegetation though overgrazing, stripping bark from trees and damaging crop fields and forest plantations. Their numbers are high in many parts of Japan, moderate in Russia, and reduced or extinct in the wild in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. This book explores their basic biology, behavior, and ecology, including management for sport hunting, conservation or recovery of threatened populations, and resolution of conflict with humans in native and introduced lands.

Sika deer, the graceful spotted deer of Japanese and Chinese art, originally were native to Asia from far-east Russia to Vietnam to the islands of Japan and Taiwan. They are widely raised in captivity to supply velvet antler for traditional medicine. They also were introduced to Europe, North America, and New Zealand, where they compete or interbreed with native deer. Sika deer typically occupy lowland hardwood forests with low winter snow depths, where they thrive in sites disturbed by fire, storm, or logging. In high numbers they can severely impact vegetation though overgrazing, stripping bark from trees and damaging crop fields and forest plantations. Their numbers are high in many parts of Japan, moderate in Russia, and reduced or extinct in the wild in China, Korea, Vietnam, and Taiwan. This book explores their basic biology, behavior, and ecology, including management for sport hunting, conservation or recovery of threatened populations, and resolution of conflict with humans in native and introduced lands.

This classic was first published in 1979. In 1928, six white-tailed deer were introduced to the Edwin S. George Reserve, a two-square-mile fenced area in southeastern Michigan. Six years later, in 1933, the first drive census showed 160 deer. This remarkable growth of deer population became a landmark in the young field of wildlife management. In this book, the author reassessed the results of previous studies on this deer herd done over the years and reported on his own studies over a twelve-year period. The latter period involved an intensive effort to elucidate the relationship of population density to birth and survival of offspring. The author's empirical population model, derived from his experiments, is compared to traditional population models used in ecology. The book is an account of the methods used, analyses performed, and models synthesized from the population data gathered at the Reserve. "I think this book is a must for all wildlife managers and for others interested in the population biology of large mammals. It should also be valuable to those generally interested in animal population ecology as it reads well and presents techniques and philosophical perspectives that are important beyond the narrowest perspective of white-tailed deer. McCullough's book will be widely quoted, and thus a necessary addition to many of our personal libraries." Journal of Mammology 62(1), 218 "The book is well written. Research workers, professors of population dynamics, and simulation modelers will all find this book of great value." Journal of Range Management 33(4) 318 "A technically sound, thorough evaluation of the subject matter makes this book a valuable contribution in the field of large mammal ecology and management." California Fish and Game 67(1) 68

As human populations and the resources required to support them continue to grow, an increasing number of plant and animal species around the world are facing extinction. Given limited time, space, and money, how do we estimate the degree of risk facing threatened species and decide which management actions will be most effective to avert extinctions?
In this book, many of the world's leading conservation and population biologists evaluate what has become a key tool in estimating extinction risk and evaluating potential recovery strategies-population viability analysis, or PVA. PVA integrates data on the life history, demography, and genetics of a species with information on environmental variability, using computer models ranging from simple measures of population growth rate to complex spatial simulations, to predict whether a given population will remain viable under various scenarios. A synthetic and objective overview of the latest theoretical and methodological advances, "Population Viability Analysis" will be crucial reading for conservationists, land managers, and policy makers.