AbstractThe paper explores the extinction of wild population, history and population growth in captivity, and the status of genetic diversity for Pere David's deer. The results show that Pere David's deer was extinct in China in the end of 19th century mainly because of hunting and loss of habitat. Inbreeding depression in the viability and sex ratio occurred in the early days since the deer were introduced into Europe. The gathering and releasing of the deer into the vast Woburn Park made the social behavior fully expressed and the population grew rapidly and strengthened the capacity to tolerate inbreeding. Now there are about 500 Pere David's deer in China. The reintroduced Pere David's deer in Dafeng reserve have adapted to the seminatural condition very well both in feeding and reproduction, and the effective population size is about 26 with the loss of heterozygosity about 30% of the wild population. It is suggested that new farms and more natural population experiments have to be established for conserving the genetic diversity of the deer.