Eld’s deer  also known as the thamin or brow-antlered deer, is an endangered species of deer endemic to South and Southeast Asia.

It is closer related to the Pere Davids deer than any other (click here to see view its page).

The three subspecies of the Eld’s deer are:

• R. e. eldii: Nominate subspecies. The Manipuri brow-antlered deer is found in Manipur, India. It is called the sangai in Meitei.
• R. e. thamin: The Burmese brow-antlered deer found in Myanmar and westernmost Thailand.
• R. e. siamensis: The Thai brow-antlered deer is found in Cambodia, China, Laos, Thailand and Vietnam, and may be treated as a separate species. The population on the Chinese island of Hainan is sometimes considered another subspecies, P. e. hainanus, but this is not supported by genetic evidence. It was described by Lydekker in 1915.

An average of its decline in each of its populations has been over 50%, suggesting that it is indeed endangered (and this is how the IUCN categorizes it). Looking at where it still exists, it does not appear to have a large population in any of these destinations.

In India, the Eld’s deer sangai subspecies is confined to the peculiar floating bog called Phumdis in Loktak Lake and is numbered at less than a few hundred animals. 

The subspecies P. e. siamensis, which occupied the vast monsoon forests from Thailand to Hainan was extinct in Thailand, very few in number in Laos and Cambodia, and almost extinct in Vietnam. A few hundred deer were protected in a large enclosure in Hainan Island, China. The estimated figures are:

• 180 animals (2004) of P. e. eldii in Manipur, India
• 2,200 (United Nations estimate) – 1992 survey for P. e. thamin of Burma and Thailand
• In low tens (2004)– for P. e. siamensis, considered as possibly extirpated in Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam

As you can see, many of these numbers come from surveys in a significant past, so it is hard to know the current position for this species.