National Parks of Taiwan

Sambar deer is distributed in South Asia and Southeast Asia, reaching Taiwan to the east, India to the west, Sumatra to the south, and Tibet to the north. Taiwan is located at the furthest east of the natural distribution of sambar deer, and Formosan sambar deer’s habitat is the highest in terms of latitude and altitude among all sambar deer. Formosan sambar deer is an endemic subspecies of Taiwan and was once listed as a protected species. Its population sharply decreased in the past due to fragmentation of its habitat and pressure from hunting. It wasn’t until recently that its population gradually recovered. To establish management guidelines for the Formosan sambar deer population, Taroko National Park Headquarters has engaged in long-term cooperation with the team of Wang Ying and Chu You-Tien, and conducted the Cross-border Integrated Research on Formosan Sambar Deer (1) in 2012, studying the habitat selection and genetic structure of Formosan sambar deer.

The research project was continued in 2013 and expanded the investigation of sambar deer distribution to Nanhu mountain, Taosai river basin, and Yushan National Park’s Nanxi forest route, using it as reference for long-term monitoring. Camera trapping was used to study the habitat selection of the sambar deer population in this area. Finally, the feasibility of capturing sambar deer for tracking in these three areas was evaluated for future research.

In light of the rapid growth of the sambar deer population, which has begun to show its effects on the forest environment, the research project started monitoring the distribution and density of sambar deer, investigated the current effects and evaluated the long-term effects on forest vegetation, and established long-term monitoring methods and data. The research project in 2013 further gathered specimens from continuous geographic areas for genetic research, which was lacking in 2012, and discussed the relationship of two populations at the mid- and down-stream of Taosai River and at the Central Mountain Range, explaining possible reasons for the genetic clustering.