The southern pudu (''Pudu puda'',

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

''püdü'' or ''püdu'', , ) is a species of

South American South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...

deer native to the

Valdivian temperate forests The Valdivian temperate forests (NT0404) is an ecoregion on the west coast of southern South America, in Chile and Argentina. It is part of the Neotropical realm. The forests are named after the city of Valdivia. The Valdivian temperate rainfores ...

of south-central

Chile Chile, officially the Republic of Chile, is a country in western South America. It is the southernmost country in the world and the closest to Antarctica, stretching along a narrow strip of land between the Andes, Andes Mountains and the Paci ...

and adjacent

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

. It is classified as Near Threatened in the

IUCN Red List The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is an inventory of the global conservation status and extinction risk of biological ...

Description

The southern pudu is characterized by being the second smallest deer in the world. It is slightly larger than its sister species, the

northern pudu The northern pudu (''Pudella mephistophiles'', Mapudungun or , , ) is a species of South American deer native to the Andes of Colombia, Venezuela, Peru and Ecuador. It is the world's smallest deer and is classified as Data Deficient in the IUCN ...

, being tall at the shoulder and weighs . The antlers of the southern pudu grow to be long and tend to curve back, somewhat like a

mountain goat The mountain goat (''Oreamnos americanus''), also known as the Rocky Mountain goat, is a cloven-footed mammal that is endemic to the remote and rugged mountainous areas of western North America. A subalpine to truly alpine species, it is a s ...

. Its coat is a dark chestnut-brown, and tends to tuft in the front, covering the antlers.

Range and habitat

The southern pudu lives in forests, including both mature and disturbed forests, typically with a dense understory, but it does nevertheless prefer open spaces with rich vegetation for feeding. It is found at lower elevations than its sister species, from

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

to elevation. In the

Chilean Coast Range The Chilean Coastal Range () is a mountain range that runs from north to south along the Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast of South America parallel to the Andes, Andean Mountains, extending from Morro de Arica in the north to Taitao Peninsula, where ...

the pudu is found in primary and secondary broadleaf evergreen and alerce (''

Fitzroya cupressoides ''Fitzroya'' is a monotypic genus in the cypress family. The single living species, ''Fitzroya cupressoides'', is a tall, long-lived conifer native to the Andes mountains and coastal regions of southern Chile, and only to the Argentine Andes, w ...

'') forests, and sometimes in ''

Eucalyptus ''Eucalyptus'' () is a genus of more than 700 species of flowering plants in the family Myrtaceae. Most species of ''Eucalyptus'' are trees, often Mallee (habit), mallees, and a few are shrubs. Along with several other genera in the tribe Eucalyp ...

'' plantations. In the southern Andes of Chile and Argentina it is associated with thickets of bamboo (''

Chusquea ''Chusquea'' is a genus of evergreen bamboos in the grass family. Most of them are native to mountain habitats in Latin America, from Mexico to southern Chile and Argentina. They are sometimes referred to as South American mountain bamboos. Unl ...

'' spp.) and ''

Nothofagus dombeyi ''Nothofagus dombeyi'', Dombey's beech, coigue, coihue or coigüe (from Mapudungun ''koywe'') is a tree species native to southern Chile and the Andean parts of Argentine Patagonia. It is a fast-growing species that can live in a wide range o ...

'' forests. Foraging by southern pudu is thought to be detrimental for the regeneration of burned forests of '' Pilgerodendron uviferum''.

Genetic diversity

Analysis of the

mtDNA control region A mitochondrion is a specialized organelle found in the cytoplasm of eukaryotic cells, which is the powerhouse of cells that produce energy through oxidative phosphorylation. Besides producing energy, they are crucial for various cellular func ...

and

cytochrome b Cytochrome b is a protein found in the membranes of aerobic cells. In eukaryotic mitochondria (inner membrane) and in aerobic prokaryotes, cytochrome b is a component of respiratory chain complex III () — also known as the bc1 complex or ubiq ...

of the southern pudu across Chile revealed that different populations have marked genetic differences, with a large number of unique

haplotype A haplotype (haploid genotype) is a group of alleles in an organism that are inherited together from a single parent. Many organisms contain genetic material (DNA) which is inherited from two parents. Normally these organisms have their DNA orga ...

s in each population and few shared haplotypes between populations. This indicates that

gene flow In population genetics, gene flow (also known as migration and allele flow) is the transfer of genetic variation, genetic material from one population to another. If the rate of gene flow is high enough, then two populations will have equivalent ...

is reduced and most populations are reproductively isolated from each other. The population from

Chiloé Island Chiloé Island (, , ), also known as Greater Island of Chiloé (''Isla Grande de Chiloé''), is the largest island of the Chiloé Archipelago off the west coast of Chile, in the Pacific Ocean. The island is located in southern Chile, in the Los L ...

is estimated to have become isolated from continental populations more than 200 thousand years ago and may constitute a separate subspecies. This reproductive isolation makes each population an important evolutionary unit but also increases their vulnerability since a drastic reduction in the number of individuals would decrease genetic diversity without recovery from migrating individuals coming from neighboring areas.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q927065 Capreolinae Mammals of Chile Mammals of Argentina Taxa named by Juan Ignacio Molina Mammals described in 1782 Fauna of the Valdivian temperate forests

Description

Range and habitat

Genetic diversity

Further reading

References