Water Deer
Hydropotes inermis
Red List assessment
Vulnerableon the IUCN Red List
- EXExtinct
- EWExtinct in the Wild
- CRCritically Endangered
- ENEndangered
- VUVulnerable
- NTNear Threatened
- LCLeast Concern
The IUCN Red List assesses the Water Deer as Vulnerable.
- Genus
- Hydropotes
- Red List category
- Vulnerable
- Data updated
- August 9, 2026
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The Water Deer is one of the mammals assessed by the IUCN Red List, so it has a page here — with its scientific name, Hydropotes inermis, its conservation category and, where one is known, a recorded observation on the map. What is missing is the rest: habitat, distribution, diet, behaviour, threats and the conservation work under way.
Each profile is researched and checked one species at a time, and there are thousands to go. You can put this one at the front of the queue.
In the meantime, the full assessment is on the IUCN Red List.
Questions about the Water Deer
Is the Water Deer endangered?
Yes. The IUCN Red List assesses the Water Deer as Vulnerable, one of the three threatened categories. The species faces a high risk of extinction in the wild. It is the first of the three threatened categories: numbers are falling, the range is shrinking, or the population is small enough that a single bad event could do lasting damage.
What is the scientific name of the Water Deer?
The Water Deer is Hydropotes inermis.
Sources
Conservation status, range description and population estimate come from the IUCN Red List assessment for Hydropotes inermis. Countries are derived from that range description, not from a mapped country list. Last refreshed on .
The distribution map is drawn from the IUCN Red List spatial data compiled in 2015. IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature)