The pampas deer is a South American species that is now considered almost extinct.
Description
Due to their genetic variability, these deer are highly polymorphic.. The skin of pampas deer is brown and slightly lighter on the legs and abdomen. Males are larger than females and measure about 75 cm to shoulder height and weigh only 35 kg. Animals bred in captivity are usually slightly smaller.
Appearance
Typically, pampas deer are reddish-brown in color with a dark muzzle and tufts of creamy white hair around the eyes, lips and throat. This coloring allows the deer to fit perfectly into the habitat. A short tail and a white spot under it sometimes cause this species to be confused with white-tailed deer.
Where does it live
The pampas deer lived in the natural grasslands of the pampas in South America in ancient times. Now its habitat is significantly limited due to the local population. Pampas deer can also be found in Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Typically, its habitat necessarily includes water, grassy pasture high enough for camouflage, and hilly terrain. Many of them are belly in areas marked by an annual cycle of floods. Pampas deer prefer areas of temporary flooding.
A significant part of this species has been modified for the needs of agriculture and other human activities.
What does it eat
The diet of pampas deer consists of grass mass green plants and shrubs. Although in fact, deer do not consume all the grass that they look at they prefer forbs with flowering plants and a fairly soft stem base. And most of this grass grows on wet soils. In fact, pampas deer eat the same things as domestic animals only, of course, in completely different proportions. Deer consume less grass they prefer flowering plants and soft shoots and twigs they even migrate for their favorite food.
During the rains, about 20% of the diet of these animals consists of young grasses and herds of deer move around the pampas in search of flowering plants. This lifestyle contributed to the concept that these animals do not compete with livestock. Rather, the opposite is true deer avoid those areas where cattle are bred.
natural enemies
The pampas deer, as a rather small animal, is threatened by many dangers and, above all, these are excessive traces of human habitation. The lives of these deer are threatened by active hunting (even poaching)!), due to the loss of their usual habitat, diseases (and not only those familiar to wild animals, but also transferred from livestock), the active development of agriculture. At the moment, less than one percent of the habitual habitat of the pampas deer remains.
Naturally, deer are also threatened by predators large cats (cheetahs, lions), as well as wolves, coyotes and foxes. Thanks to these predators, there is a general control of the deer population so that they do not destroy all the plants in the biome.
Due to the settlers, this animal species was once pursued by harsh agricultural expansion, active persecution for the purpose of hunting and, of course, new diseases. Now the situation is changing a little many landowners are sympathetic to the problem of such animals, preparing parts of the feed as a reserve for them, and also switching to breeding skor instead of sheep familiar for centuries. After all, it is sheep that most often occupy the territory of deer and pose a significant threat to them.
