Hoof growth as a predictor of neonatal age for the Patagonian huemul deer

Abstract

The endangered Patagonian huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) is the only large native herbivore to reside in most of the subantarctic false-beech (Nothofagus spp.) forest habitat occurring in Chile and Argentina. It asserts that this deer species has a distinctly important role at the community level. During the past century, numbers of huemul in Chile and Argentina have declined perhaps as much as a 99% from levels before arrival of Europeans (Redford and Eisenberg, 1992).There are likely less than 600 deer left in Argentina fragmented along about 1850 km of the Andes mountain range, and maybe 1500 in Chile (Smith-Flueck, 2000). Recently, conservation efforts for this species have increased substantially. Consequently, more people work in areas where huemul still survive and come into contact with both live and dead animals. This report results from such a recent encounter which permitted us to examine a dead female huemul fawn for the first time. There are only two previous accounts of observations of newborn huemul (Smith-Flueck, 2000). Franke (1952) referred to his experiences with captive huemul, which included the births of two fawns. He kept detailed scientific notes, but unfortunately, these were lost after his death. The other account involved the birth of a fawn which died after 35 hours (Texera, 1974). The mother, which had lost about 50% of her body weight during a brief time in captivity, died shortly after her fawn. Measurements of her fawn indicated it was born underdeveloped. Due to the complete lack of information on newborn huemul, we report on morphological features which might assist in aging alive or dead neonatal huemul fawns. The possibility to age young fawns in a consistent manner is paramount considering that problems with recruitment may be at the heart of huemul recovery (Smith-Flueck, 2000; Smith-Flueck and Flueck, 2001).