Mesopotamian fallow deer

Open encyclopedia reference

The Persian fallow deer (Dama mesopotamica) is a species of deer that once inhabited most of West Asia, but is currently only found in the wild in Iran and Israel. Since 2008, it has been classified as an endangered species on the IUCN Red List. Owing to a focused program of captive breeding, the population of Persian fallow deer has rebounded from only a handful of deer in the 1960s to over a thousand deer in the 2010s. The species was re-introduced to Israel in 1978, thereafter reaching a stable wild population there, while it continues to occur naturally in Iran. There are smaller populations of Persian fallow deer in captivity at European zoos, particularly in Germany.

Wikipedia contributors, Persian fallow deer; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T10:47:51.252720+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.

Identity & source status

Scientific name

Dama mesopotamica (Brooke, 1875)

Name authority

(Brooke, 1875)

Common name

Mesopotamian fallow deer

Rank

species

Accepted status

accepted

Kingdom

Animalia

Phylum

Chordata

Class

Mammalia

Order

Artiodactyla

Family

Cervidae

Genus

Dama

Extinction status

Recorded extant

Classification family tree

Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.

1. domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
2. kingdomAnimalia
3. phylumChordata
4. subphylumVertebrata
5. infraphylumGnathostomata
6. parvphylumOsteichthyes
7. megaclassTetrapoda
8. classMammalia Linnaeus, 1758
9. subclassTheria Parker & Haswell, 1897
10. infraclassEutheria Gill, 1872
11. orderArtiodactyla Owen, 1848
12. familyCervidae Goldfuss, 1820
13. subfamilyCervinae Goldfuss, 1820
14. tribeCervini Goldfuss, 1820
15. genusDama Frisch, 1775
16. speciesDama mesopotamica (Brooke, 1875)

Close classified relatives

These entries share the source’s genus, Dama. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.

Browse 50 records assigned to Cervidae.

Names & synonyms

Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.

Documented distribution

Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.

Source literature & publication evidence

References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.

1. https://www.itis.gov/servlet/SingleRpt/SingleRpt?search_topic=TSN&search_value=625052 Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references

Origins, evidence & remaining research

Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.

Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.

Dataset citation & attribution

This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11

Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.

Stable key: col:6CB22. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.