Formosan sika deer to about 300 m elevation. Sika, like many deer, prefer areas of mixed forest, scrub, and open land. Under natural conditions the low-lying alluvial plain that stretches from present-day Taipei along the west coast almost to the southern tip of the island were prime deer habitat and natural populations would have been quite dense. Sika populations in Taiwan have been heavily influenced by human activity for the past four hundred years. Until the early 17th century the human population of Taiwan was low and comprised mostly Austronesian peoples who had been living on the island for thousands of years. During
Sika people Catholic mission worked actively since the 17th century; where it is here that their culture acquired European features. Sika people engage in slash-and-burn agriculture with short forms of shifting cultivation. In the west of the coastal area, irrigation is used. Food crops farming include rice, corn, cassava and millet; and other commodities are such as peanuts and coconut palm. Sika people also raise horses, small cattle and poultry. Coastal fishing is also common. Weaving and braiding are well developed. Commodity-money relations are intertwined with numerous survivals of the traditional communal system, where it is manifested in the system of land