NANJING, June 13 (Xinhua) -- The population of the rare Pere David's deer, who have been extinct in the wild for over a century, at a nature reserve in east China's Jiangsu Province has risen to 1,007, reserve officials said on Tuesday.

The reserve has had 188 fawns so far this year, up from last year's 113, and became the first of its kind in the world with more than 1,000 Pere David's deer, the officials said.

A 24-hour patrol has been in place in the Dafeng national nature reserve since April to prevent the pregnant deer from being scared, and core areas within the reserve were quarantined to bar the entry of livestock that might have infectious diseases.

Wild species of the rare animal have been extinct for over a century. Experts had hoped that the deer would breed once it is returned to its wild habitat.

In November 1998, the nature reserve returned eight David's deer to the wild and one of the females successfully delivered a fawn in 2003. In the same year, the animal species was removed from the red list of endangered animals published by the World Conservation Union.

However, David's deer is still under A-level state protection in China.

The species was named after Pere David, a French Catholic priest and naturalist who first recorded the existence of the deer in China back in 1865.

Pere David's deer were first mentioned in Chinese books more than 2,000 years ago. The wetland deer species bears the odd nickname of "sibuxiang", or "none of the four alike" for its unique features in appearance -- a horse's face, a donkey's tail, cow-like hooves and a stag's antlers.

Dafeng national nature reserve covers an area of 78,000 hectares and was established in 1986 on the eastern coastline of Jiangsu Province. Enditem