During the seventeenth century when the Dutch occupied Taiwan, they exported annually 100,000 sika pelts, according to the records of the Dutch East India Company. Such numbers indicate that sika herds of the time were extremely plentiful.
據現存的荷蘭東印度公司檔案記載，十七世紀荷人據台時，平均每年出口十萬張以上的鹿皮，可想見幾百年前台灣島上成群梅花鹿成群、遊走、棲息的盛況。