Sika deer
Cervus nippon Temminck, 1838
The sika deer (Cervus nippon) is a mammal in the family Cervidae, subfamily Cervinae, of the order Artiodactyla. It is a large, terrestrial, nocturnal herbivore with an adult body mass of 53 kg, living in forest and grassland habitats.
Quick facts about the sika deer
Gestation lasts 223.7 days, females have 1 young per litter and 1 litter per year, and sexual maturity comes at 1.4 years. The IUCN Red List classifies it as Least Concern, not a threatened category, and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- 53 kgsrc for Weight
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- 25.4 yearssrc for Lifespan
- Diet
- Herbivoresrc for Diet
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 26.3 years
- Main food
- Not recorded
- Habitat
- forest, grasslandsrc for Habitat
- Gestation
- 217 days – 224 dayssrc for Gestation
- Young per litter or clutch
- 1src for Young per litter or clutch
- Age at maturity
- 16.4 months – 17 monthssrc for Age at maturity
- Litters or clutches a year
- 1src for Litters or clutches a year
- Active
- At night (nocturnal)src for Active
- Lifestyle
- Terrestrialsrc for Lifestyle
- Conservation status
- Least Concern (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the sika deer
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the sika deer live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The sika deer is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the sika deer?
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.
From the Wikipedia article “Sika deer” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sika_deer&oldid=1381429589), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
Is the sika deer endangered?
The sika deer is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List: it is not currently at risk of extinction.
- LCLeast Concern
- NTNear Threatened
- VUVulnerable
- ENEndangered
- CRCritically Endangered
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- EXExtinct
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Least Concern species.
How is the sika deer classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- classMammalia
- orderArtiodactyla
- familyCervidae
- genusCervus
- SpeciesCervus nippon Temminck, 1838
Synonyms Cervus dybowskii, Cervus hortulorum, Cervus hortulorum hortulorum, Cervus mnippon, Cervus nippon aplodontus, Cervus nippon hortulorum, Cervus nippon hortulorum, Cervus nippon keramae, Cervus nippon mageshimae, Cervus nippon mantchuricus, Cervus nippon nippon, Cervus nippon pulchellus, Cervus nippon soloensis, Cervus nippon yakushimae, Cervus pulchellus, Sika, Sika nippon
Other names and names in other languages (59)
- Japanese deerEnglish
- Japanese sika deerEnglish
- Japanese sika deerEnglish
- Japanese spotted deerEnglish
- Shansi sikaEnglish
- Shansi sikaEnglish
- ShikaEnglish
- SikaEnglish
- SikaEnglish
- Spotted deerEnglish
- ユㇰAinu
- アㇷ゚カAinu
- سيكاArabic
- أيل السيكاArabic
- أيل مرقطArabic
- أيل يابانيArabic
- أيل مرقط يابانيArabic
- venáu sikaAsturian
- banaanbnn
- Carw SicaWelsh
- Ceirw SicaWelsh
- SikahirschGerman
- Japan-SikahirschGerman
- Sika-HirschGerman
- Ιαπωνικό ΕλάφιGreek
- Ciervo sicaSpanish
- TähnikhirvEstonian
- JapaninpeuraFinnish
- JapaninkaurisFinnish
- Cerf sikaFrench
- fiadh-SeapanachScottish Gaelic
- fèidh-SheapanachScottish Gaelic
- Cervo sikaGalician
- Sika jelenCroatian
- szikaszarvasHungarian
- Բծավոր եղջերուArmenian
- Cervo del GiapponeItalian
- 鹿Japanese
- ニホンジカJapanese
- 馬毛島のニホンジカJapanese
- 사슴Korean
- 꽃사슴Korean
- 대륙사슴Korean
- Dėmėtasis elniasLithuanian
- TiaMāori
- စီကာ သမင်Burmese
- SikahertDutch
- Jeleń wschodniPolish
- Cervo-SikaPortuguese
- Пятнистый ОленьRussian
- Jeleň sikaSlovak
- сика јеленSerbian
- sikahjortSwedish
- กวางซีก้าThai
- กวางญี่ปุ่นThai
- Sika GeyiğiTurkish
- Олень плямистийUkrainian
- 梅花鹿Chinese
- Meihua LuChinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataIUCN Red List
Relatives of the sika deer
Other species in the same genus Cervus.
Red deer
Cervus elaphus
Elk
Cervus canadensis
Thorold's deer
Cervus albirostris
Hangul
Cervus hanglu
CompareSika deer vs Red deerSika deer vs ElkSika deer vs Thorold's deerSika deer vs Hangul
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the sika deer?
The sika deer is a mammal in the family Cervidae and the order Artiodactyla. It is classed as a large animal by body mass.
How heavy is a sika deer?
An adult Sika deer has a body mass of 53 kg.
What does the sika deer eat?
The sika deer is a herbivore.
Is the sika deer endangered?
No. The sika deer is listed as Least Concern on the IUCN Red List, which is not a threatened category.
How long does a sika deer live?
The sika deer has a lifespan of 25.42 years, with values up to 26.3 years reported.
How many young does a sika deer have?
A sika deer has 1 young per litter and 1 litter per year, after a gestation period of 223.7 days.
Which countries is the sika deer recorded in?
Checklists record the sika deer in Australia.
Who named the sika deer?
The sika deer, Cervus nippon, was named by Temminck, 1838.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles · CC0 1.0 · E096-269
Myhrvold, N.P., Baldridge, E., Chan, B., Sivam, D., Freeman, D.L. & Ernest, S.K.M. (2015) An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96: 3109. https://doi.org/10.1890/15-0846R.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3563457.v1 - Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - EltonTraits 1.0: species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals · CC0 1.0 · 1.0
Wilman, H., Belmaker, J., Simpson, J., de la Rosa, C., Rivadeneira, M.M. & Jetz, W. (2014) EltonTraits 1.0: Species-level foraging attributes of the world's birds and mammals. Ecology 95: 2027. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1917.1. Data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.3559887.v1 - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Sika deer (Cervus nippon). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/sika-deer
“Sika deer (Cervus nippon).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/sika-deer.
@misc{sika_deer_2026,
title = {Sika deer (Cervus nippon)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/sika-deer},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}