Bukhara deer

King of the riverside forests

The Bukhara deer lives in the thick riverside forests of Uzbekistan called tugai. The males have beautiful antlers that grow back every year! Once they almost disappeared — only 350 were left. People protected them and helped them breed, and now there are more than 3,000.

The Bukhara deer (Cervus hanglu bactrianus) is a rare subspecies native to the tugai forests along Central Asia's rivers (Amu Darya, Zarafshan, Syr Darya). After tugai forests were cleared for irrigation, only 350 deer remained by 1999. Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, together with WWF, launched a recovery programme: deer were bred in the Zarafshan and Lower Amu Darya reserves and released into the wild. Today there are more than 3,500. It is listed in Uzbekistan's Red Book. Males' antlers reach 1 m and are shed and regrown every year.

Fun facts

• Deer antlers are the fastest-growing tissue in the animal kingdom — up to 2 cm a day!
• The Bukhara deer is a strong swimmer — it crosses the Amu Darya with ease.
• 350 in 1999, more than 3,500 in 2023 — numbers grew 10 times!
• Its other name, 'hangul', comes from Persian — 'royal flower'.