Where applicable, the Status in Captivity is included. Ecology and Reproduction summarizes habitat and food preference, average group size and dispersion pattern, movements, and reproduction, while Uses describes current patterns of subsistence and commercial exploitation. Causes of Decline and Present Threats discusses prevailing problems confronting the species, and Field Studies lists recent and current initiatives to investigate various aspects of ecology. Conservation Action gives the reader information on various activities in each country, and Recommended Conservation Action lists the DSG's ideas of what is necessary to conserve the species. A comprehensive bibliography provides an extremely useful reference of recent literature on deer conservation.
Appendices provide additional material of use to field workers and conservationists.
Funding is a major challenge to the implementation of the Action Plan, but the costs of conducting field work can be quite economical, and working at the grass roots level has many rewards. The object of Phase One of the Action Plan is to train developing country personnel. Regional training workshops would give graduate students and field biologists the skills and standardized methodology to conduct population surveys and ecological studies of threatened deer populations. Based on the survey information, Phase Two will initiate investigations of those populations in critical need of ecological information for proper management. This scheme is based on the belief that effective remedies for declining deer populations will be secured only with the use of sound knowledge.