Captive breeding as a valuable tool to achieve the recovery of the endangered huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus)

Abstract

The population size of huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus), an endangered deer species from Patagonia, is presently estimated at about 350-500 in Argentina and 1.000 in Chile and occurring in over 100 smallfragmented family groups. The reduction of its past population size has been estimated at over 99%. Despitethe species? protection by law, a lack of effective captive breeding prevents an active recovery approach animalreproduction and their subsequent reintroduction to suitable natural environments.Taking into account examples of other important species recovery, e.g. us European bison (Bison bonasus),European beaver (Castor fiber) and Pere David?s deer (Elaphurus davidianus), captive breeding can be auseful and successful method to improve the status of endangered animals. Besides animal reproduction, sucha center should provide for a wide range of scientific investigations based on human imprinted animals, rearedon bottles. Newborn raised on cattle milk do not shows any fear towards humans, and therefore, it is possible toobtain reliable scientific results without influence of stress. A good model of a captive breeding facility forhuemul would be the experimental deer facility of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Popielno, where a varietyof important investigations on physiology of red deer of both sexes have been conducted. Methods were alsodeveloped there for semen collection from red deer stags using artificial vagina. Applying these techniques tohuemul would provide an opportunity to establish a live semen bank protected in LN2 as a reserve of genes ofthis endangered species. By adopting an adaptive management approach to accompany the reintroductionphase, various additional important questions will be possible to investigate.