Dama dama (Linnaeus 1758)

Wilson, Don E. & Reeder, DeeAnn, 2005, Order Artiodactyla, Mammal Species of the World: a Taxonomic and Geographic Reference (3 rd Edition), Volume 1, Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, pp. 637-722 : 665

Dama dama (Linnaeus 1758)

[Cervus] dama Linnaeus 1758 , Syst. Nat., 10th ed., Vol. 1: 67 .

Type Locality: "Habitat in Europa"; identified as "Habitat in vivariis Regis & Magnatum" by Thomas (1911 a:151), in Sweden to which it had been introduced .

Vernacular Names: Fallow Deer.

Subspecies: :

Subspecies Dama dama subsp. dama Linnaeus 1758

Subspecies Dama dama subsp. mesopotamica Brooke 1875

Distribution: Naturally wild populations of nominate form still present in S Turkey; introduced into nearly all countries of Europe (incl. Lithuania and Ukraine), South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Argentina, Chile, Peru, and Uruguay, as well as islands in Fijian group, Lesser Antilles, and off W Canadian Coast. For present distribution, see Chapman and Chapman (1980); for natural recent distribution see Uerpmann (1987). Subspecies mesopotamica formerly in Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, E Turkey, and possibly Syria; survives in W Iran.

Conservation: CITES – Appendix I as D. mesopotamica ; U.S. ESA – Endangered as D. mesopotamica (= D. d. mesopotamica ); IUCN – Endangered as D. dama mesopotamica , otherwise Lower Risk (lc).

Discussion: Reviewed by Feldhamer et al. (1988, Mammalian Species, 317), who included mesopotamica in this species. Dama schaeferi Hilzheimer, 1926 was supposedly from Africa, but the name is now known to have been based on a specimen from Italy (Kock, 2000 b). The form mesopotamica has recently been regarded as a subspecies of D. † clactoniana (Falconer, 1868), treated as a separate species from D. dama by di Stefano (1996), based on the resemblance of its antlers to a fossil antler of † clactoniana from Edelsheim, Germany. Since characters of fossil antlers are open to varying interpretations, the evidence supporting this conclusion seems insufficient at present (A. Lister, in litt.); mesopotamica has also been regarded as a separate species from D. dama by Haltenorth (1959), Ferguson et al. (1985), Uerpmann (1987), and Harrison and Bates (1991) but in Geist's (1998) revision has been restored to subspecies status.