 The deer was rare (R) in 1994, data deficient (DD) in 1996, and vulnerable (VU) since 2008 up to present.This is because of the rapid population decline estimated to be more than 30% in the last 24 years or three generations due to excessive hunting, shrinkage in distribution, and habitat loss and fragmentation.In prehistoric times, the Sunda island of Borneo might have been connected to Palawan during the penultimate and previous glacial events, judging from the molecular phylogeny of murids.