Northern Andean Deer
| Northern Andean Deer | ||||||||||||
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Northern Andean Deer ( Hippocamelus antisensis ) |
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| Hippocamelus antisensis | ||||||||||||
| ( d'Orbigny , 1834) |
The North Andean deer ( Hippocamelus antisensis ), also known as Peruvian huemul , taruka or northern Andean deer , is a medium-sized species of the deer family that is found in the South American Andes . Tarukas reach a shoulder height of 69 to 80 cm and a weight of 45 to 65 kilograms. The IUCN has classified the species as endangered.
description
Tarukas are medium-sized, stocky deer that can weigh 46 to 60 kilograms and a shoulder height of 69 to 80 centimeters. The head-trunk length is between 140 and 165 centimeters. Females are usually slightly smaller and lighter. The coat is coarse and usually has a sand-gray to grayish-brown coloration. The top hair appears very thick and banded in the last third. There is a thick white wool under the top hair.
The face has characteristic black markings that differ from individual to individual. Tarukas have a very large fore eye gland . The underside of the head is colored white. The ears are long and pointed and grayish brown in color. The outer edges of the ears are darker in tone. The inside of the ears, on the other hand, is brown with whitish hairs along the inner edge. The underside of the neck is covered with white fur up to the base of the chest, the upper side and the back fur are grayish brown. The rear back is darker in color, and the base of the tail varies in color from brown to dark brown. The underside of the trunk is dark brown from the chest to the abdomen . The inside of the legs, however, is white. The legs are short, which can be interpreted as an adaptation to the rocky environment and steep slopes. The color of the so-called mirror is white, which underlines the signaling effect during the escape. The underside of the tail is also white, with long white hairs on the tip. The antlers, which only the male deer wear, are simply forked near the base and measure up to 27 centimeters.
habitat
The northern Andean deer inhabits the slopes of the Andes from northern Peru to the north of Argentina. The animals usually stay in groups above the tree line on stony mountain slopes, which are characterized by rocky outcrops and vegetation typical of the grassland, and offer close access to water - usually small ravines, lagoons or marshes. As animals of the high mountains, tarukas can be found at altitudes of 2000 to 4000 meters, in some parts of the distribution area they also rise to an altitude of 5000 meters during the summer. They inhabit both the east side of the Andes with predominantly humid weather and the climatically drier west side of the mountains.
Spread and endangerment
The range of the Tarukas ranges from Peru and Bolivia to northern Chile and the northwest of Argentina . This largely corresponds to the historical distribution area, but the population in the entire distribution area is highly fragmented. In particular at the northern and southern ends of the distribution area, the individual populations are strongly fragmented and isolated from one another.
Tarukas occur in populations that are scattered across the range and only overlap in thin contact areas. The specialization in certain habitats contributes to this fragmentation. In some parts of the range, these habitats are isolated from one another and separated from one another by densely populated areas. The spatial spread of the population in Chile is small, and it appears to be isolated from the Bolivian population. It is probably an offshoot of the southern Peruvian population.
According to estimates from 2008, the population of the northern Andean deer amounts to approx. 12,000 - 17,000 specimens. The individual populations are usually less than a thousand individuals. The increasing fragmentation of the habitats represents a serious threat to the stocks, which have been declining in large parts of the distribution area for decades. Other threats include a. the competition with livestock , the ongoing destruction of habitats, hunting and predation by domestic dogs. In Bolivia, the antlers are still used in traditional medicine to cure diseases such as facial palsy , and the dried meat of the animals is eaten by the rural population.
Like the closely related South Andean deer , the Taruka is considered threatened and is listed in Appendix I of the CITES Agreement. The IUCN lists the Taruka as endangered ( vulnerable ).
behavior
Individual Tarukas have fixed roaming areas , mostly live in mixed groups with up to 31 individuals throughout the year, whose roaming areas overlap. The groups consist of adult males, females, yearlings, and fawns . The composition of the groups varies over the course of several days. Due to the fixed roaming areas, the same animals always come together, at least seasonally.
From January to April, when the fawns are born, same-sex groups predominate. The group is usually led by a female who precedes the group, while a large male is always the last animal in the group. On the run, the pack divides into several smaller units or flees together in one line, with the young animals close to adult males.
Taruka groups usually climb to higher altitudes during the day, where they feed primarily on dicotyledonous plants that grow in crevices. In the late afternoon or evening they descend again to lower altitudes, where they spend the night. In agricultural areas, maize , potato sprouts and barley are also the preferred diets of the Tarukas.
The males shed their antlers in September, but are back in the bast in December , and in February the antlers are fully developed and the bast swept. During the rutting season , which peaks in June during the dry season, the male tries to stimulate the female by licking or nudging the vulva . After mating, the gestation period is around 240 days, so the doe usually gives birth to a single calf between January and March during the rainy season. This has the advantage that there is an abundance of food during this time. The long gestation period for a deer the size of a taruka is attributed to the cold environment and the low nutritional value of the food resources.
Zoological gardens
Few zoological gardens outside the natural range have ever kept Tarukas, although the animals reproduce well in captivity. The largest number of animals in captivity were in the Berlin Zoological Garden . In the years between 1889 and 1902 and between 1931 and 1941, the Berlin Zoo held Tarukas. At least 12 young animals were born in a period of ten years, but the Berlin Tarukas did not survive the Second World War .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d Barrio, J. & Ferreyra, N .: Hippocamelus antisensis , in: IUCN 2008. IUCN Red List of Threatened Species
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Barrio, J. (2010): Taruka Hippocamelus antisensis (d'Orbigny 1834), in: JMB Duarte y S. Gonzalez (eds.): Neotropical Cervidology: Biology and Medicine of Neotropical Deer. FUNEP, Jaboticabal, Brazil and IUCN, Gland, Switzerland, pp. 77-88. On-line
- ↑ Javier Barrio: Population viability analysis of the Taruka, Hippocamelus antisensis (d'Órbigny, 1834) (Cervidae) in southern Peru, in: Rev. peru. biol. 14 (2) (December 2007), pp. 193-200. On-line
- ↑ Frädrich, H. (1987): The husbandry of tropical and temperate cervids in the West Berlin zoo, in: Biology and management of the Cervidae (C. Wemmer, ed.) Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, p. 422– 428