Cervus nippon
Silhouette: Birgit Lang · PhyloPic
In 3 days >90%
The sika deer (Cervus nippon), also known as the northern spotted deer or the Japanese deer, is a species of deer native to much of East Asia and introduced to other parts of the world. Previously found from northern Vietnam in the south to the Russian Far East in the north, it was overhunted to the brink of extinction in the 19th century. Protection laws were enacted in the mid-20th century, leading to a rapid recovery of their population from the 1950s to the 1980s.
The name "sika deer" comes from shika (鹿), the Japanese word for "deer", and in Japan, the species is known as the nihonjika (ニホンジカ (日本鹿), "Japan deer"). In Chinese, it is known as Chinese: 梅花鹿; pinyin: méihuālù, "plum blossom deer", referring to the white fur spots on the deer's back resembling plum blossoms.
The sika deer is a member of the genus Cervus, a group of deer also known as the "true" deer, within the larger deer family, Cervidae. Formerly, sika were grouped together in this genus with nine other diverse species; these animals have since been found to be genetically different, and reclassified elsewhere under different genera. Currently, deer species within the genus Cervus are... Wikipedia →
Recording0:19
United States · 2024
© Cole Tiemann · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording1:19
New Zealand · 2022
© mark_smale · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
Recording0:50
New Zealand · 2024
© commoncopper · iNaturalist · CC BY-NC 4.0
| # | Park | Country | Daily sighting probability |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nikko National Park | 🇯🇵 Japan |
More parks will be added in future updates.
No species of the same family or order lives in Nikko National Park, so these are its closest relatives here: other mammals.
Very likely
About 70% of wildlife watchers report a Sika Deer sighting in Nikko National Park on a given day, based on 48 verified sightings from GBIF citizen-science data from 2019 to 2026. Over three days the chance rises to over 90%, if each day is a fresh chance.
June–July, September and November–December
In those months about 80% of wildlife watchers report a Sika Deer in Nikko National Park on a given day, against about 30% in January, the lowest month.
Between 5 and 8 am
Across all the parks we cover, that three-hour window holds the most Sika Deer sightings with a recorded time, and about 6 in 10 of them come between 6 am and 6 pm: it is most active around dawn and dusk.
Only Nikko National Park, in our data
Nikko National Park is the only park on Wallace's Line with enough records to rate Sika Deer sightings: about 70% of wildlife watchers there report one on a given day.
GBIF citizen-science records
It is estimated from how often the Sika Deer is recorded against all the mammals logged in Nikko National Park (48 verified sightings from 2019 to 2026), calibrated against known sighting rates. Figures are rounded to the nearest 10% because citizen-science data supports honest approximations, not decimals, and months with records from fewer than five people show "—". How it works.
