Functional limb anatomy in a refugee species: The endangered Patagonian huemul deer (Hippocamelus bisulcus)

A Protocol to Assess the Welfare of Patagonian Huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) in Conservation Centers

Animal-welfare-assessment protocols are important for identifying welfare problems in conservation programs. This study aimed to develop a baseline welfare protocol for the assessment of the welfare of Patagonian huemuls (Hippocamelus bisulcus) in conservation centers. This protocol is based on the Welfare Quality® (WQ) framework for cattle and was developed with the consideration of the available research on the behaviors, ecology, conservation, and captive management of this species, as well as welfare-assessment protocols for other ungulate species. As a result, the protocol was specifically developed for Patagonian huemuls and included four principles, 12 criteria, and 23 animal- and resource-based indicators. The twelve criteria of the WQ protocol were reduced to nine, and three new criteria were added because they were both feasible and essential for welfare assessment in captive Patagonian huemuls. This protocol is mainly intended to identify welfare problems in endangered species in the context of conservation centers (reproduction, rescue, rehabilitation, or treatment centers). Thus, the aggregation of different measures to obtain a global score was not proposed. However, a scoring system that assigns a value on a 0-2 scale (0 = no welfare concern; 1 = welfare concern; 2 = urgent welfare concern) was proposed for each category. Although further research is still needed to fully validate the protocol, this is the first development of a protocol to assess Patagonian huemul welfare, and it can be used as a basis for the development of welfare-assessment protocols for other deer species in captivity.

Loss of Migratory Traditions Makes the Endangered Patagonian Huemul Deer a Year-Round Refugee in Its Summer Habitat

The huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) is endangered, with 1500 deer split into >100 subpopulations along 2000 km of Andes. Currently occupied areas are claimed-erroneously, to be critical prime habitats. We analyzed historical spatiotemporal behavior since current patterns represent only a fraction of pre-Columbian ones. Given the limited knowledge, the first group (n = 6) in Argentina was radio-marked to examine spatial behavior. Historically, huemul resided year-round in winter ranges, while some migrated seasonally, some using grasslands >200 km east of their current presence, reaching the Atlantic. Moreover, huemul anatomy is adapted to open unforested habitats, also corroborated by spotless fawns. Extreme naivety towards humans resulted in early extirpation on many winter ranges—preferentially occupied by humans, resulting in refugee huemul on surrounding mountain summer ranges. Radio-marked huemul remained in small ranges with minimal altitudinal movements, as known from other subpopulations. However, these resident areas documented here are typical summer ranges as evidenced by past migrations, and current usage for livestock. The huemul is the only cervid known to use mountain summer ranges year-round in reaction to anthropogenic activities. Losing migratory traditions is a major threat, and may explain their presently prevalent skeletal diseases, reduced longevity, and lacking recolonizations for most remaining huemul subpopulations.