sika

noun

si·​ka ˈsē-kə How to pronounce sika (audio)
: a deer (Cervus nippon) of eastern Asia that has a chestnut to brownish coat often spotted with white and that has established populations in other regions (such as Europe and the U.S.) as a result of introduction

Examples of sika in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web
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The hybrids seem to be intermediate in physical appearance, tending toward the spotted coats and smaller stature of the sika deer. Richard Pallardy, Ars Technica, 30 July 2024 Barbary sheep, mouflon sheep, blackbuck, red stag, sika and axis deer and mountain goats are among the exotic game that roam the ranch. Melissa Manno, San Antonio Express-News, 17 Dec. 2023 The zoo — which has three sika deer, six black bears, 10 alpacas and hundreds of monkeys and birds — doesn’t charge admission and was reliant on state funds, but hadn’t received money for six months, according to the fund. Laura He, CNN, 20 Sep. 2023 One study on dystocia in free-ranging sika deer says the lack of recorded instances of the complication could be a result of natural selection toward optimal birth size in does and fawns. Katie Hill, Outdoor Life, 6 Sep. 2023 More recent excavations of Bo’s tomb yielded golden eagles, sika deer and rhesus monkeys. Meilan Solly, Smithsonian Magazine, 16 Aug. 2023 There’s a deer island (and deer cities, too, most notably Nara, Japan’s eighth-century capital and home to more than a thousand sika deer, who dominate the main park and occasionally try to butt visitors, who are warned by signs not to antagonize them). Hanya Yanagihara Kyoko Hamada, New York Times, 10 May 2023 This is the first article to report mating behaviour between a male Japanese macaque (Macaca fuscata yakui) and female sika deer (Cervus nippon yakushimae) on Yakushima Island, Japan. Seriously Science, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2018 Chinese farmers have been raising sika deer for their velvet for hundreds of years. The New Yorker, 7 Mar. 2022

Word History

Etymology

Japanese shika

First Known Use

1859, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of sika was in 1859

Dictionary Entries Near sika

Cite this Entry

“Sika.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sika. Accessed 12 Dec. 2024.

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