The Yucatan brown brocket (''Odocoileus pandora'') is a small species of

deer Deer or true deer are hoofed ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. The two main groups of deer are the Cervinae, including the muntjac, the elk (wapiti), the red deer, and the fallow deer; and the Capreolinae, including the reindeer ...

native to

Central America Central America ( es, América Central or ) is a subregion of the Americas. Its boundaries are defined as bordering the United States to the north, Colombia to the south, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the west. ...

Taxonomy

It has been previously treated as a disjunct

subspecies In biological classification, subspecies is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (morphology), but that can successfully interbreed. Not all species ...

of the

gray brocket The gray brocket (''Mazama gouazoubira''), also known as the brown brocket, is a species of brocket deer from northern Argentina, Bolivia, southern Peru, eastern and southern Brazil, Paraguay, and Uruguay. It formerly included the Amazonian br ...

(''Mazama gouazoubira)'' or a subspecies of the

red brocket The red brocket (''Mazama americana'') is a species of brocket deer from forests in South America, ranging from northern Argentina to Colombia and the Guianas. It also occurs on the Caribbean island of Trinidad (it also occurred on the island of ...

(''M. americana''). In 2021, the

American Society of Mammalogists The American Society of Mammalogists (ASM) was founded in 1919. Its primary purpose is to encourage the study of mammals, and professions studying them. There are over 4,500 members of this society, and they are primarily professional scientists ...

placed it in the genus ''

Odocoileus ''Odocoileus'' is a genus of medium-sized deer (family Cervidae) containing three species native to the Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North and South Am ...

''.Gutiérrez, E. E., Helgen, K. M., McDonough, M. M., Bauer, F., Hawkins, M. T., Escobedo-Morales, L. A., ... & Maldonado, J. E. (2017). A gene-tree test of the traditional taxonomy of American deer: the importance of voucher specimens, geographic data, and dense sampling. ZooKeys, (697), 87.

Description

Among other features, the Yucatan brown brocket differs from both the red brocket and the gray brocket in the shape and measurements of the skull and antlers. It also differs from the

Central American red brocket The Central American red brocket (''Mazama temama'') is a species of brocket deer ranging from southern Mexico, through Central America, to northwestern Colombia. Taxonomy In 1792 Robert Kerr originally described it as a unique separate spec ...

(''M. temama)'' which is locally

sympatric In biology, two related species or populations are considered sympatric when they exist in the same geographic area and thus frequently encounter one another. An initially interbreeding population that splits into two or more distinct species sh ...

with the Yucatan brown brocket, in its gray-brown, rather than overall reddish, color.

Distribution and habitat

''O. pandora'' is found in the

Yucatán Peninsula The Yucatán Peninsula (, also , ; es, Península de Yucatán ) is a large peninsula in southeastern Mexico and adjacent portions of Belize and Guatemala. The peninsula extends towards the northeast, separating the Gulf of Mexico to the north ...

Mexico Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...

Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...

and

Guatemala Guatemala ( ; ), officially the Republic of Guatemala ( es, República de Guatemala, links=no), is a country in Central America. It is bordered to the north and west by Mexico; to the northeast by Belize and the Caribbean; to the east by H ...

. While it is found in humid tropical forest like most other

brocket deer Brockets or brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus ''Mazama''. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forest ...

, the Yucatan brown brocket also ranges across arid, relatively open habitats. Yuk9sep9201b

References

Odocoileus Ungulates of Central America Mammals of Mexico Mammals described in 1901 Taxa named by Clinton Hart Merriam Taxobox binomials not recognized by IUCN Fauna of the Yucatán Peninsula {{eventoedungulate-stub