Due to ongoing habitat loss, small population size and limited range, the Bawean deer is evaluated as critically endangered on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species.

Their fawns are spotted at birth, which separates them from the best known western population of the related Indian hog deer (Axis porcinus).

[1] They live in woodlands and upland forests with dense undergrowth which is used for shelter, providing a refuge in which the deer sleep and rest during the day.

[5] The World Wildlife Fund has noted that some of the factors for the decline of this species and others in Indonesia include climate changes: warming ocean temperatures, rising sea levels, prolonged droughts, and increased flooding.

[6] The Indonesian government passed a bill in 1977 protecting the endangered Bawean deer, and consequently their numbers have risen.

[7] The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has listed the Kuhl's hog deer as being critically endangered, meaning that the species is facing an extremely high risk of extinction in the wild.