of 1993, 30 deer taken from the herd at beijing milu park were released into the tian'ezhou milu national nature reserve (a.k.a. shishou milu national nature reserve) in , shishou. these were followed by another 34 deer taken from beijing park and released into the tian'ezhou reserve. in a 1998 flood, a number of deer escaped from the reserve and have since been living and multiplying in the wild. as of 2015, the number of deer living in the wild is 700. the average annual population growth rate for père david's deer in tianezhou nature reserve was 22.2%.