In-depth analysis of an iconic species from Chilean and Argentinian mountains
Estimations from specialists agree that there are about 1.500 examples of this species, especially in the Patagonia, of which 70% are Chilean.
The huemul or South Andean deer (Hippocalemus bisulcus) is an endangered species native to the Andean Patagonian region in Chile and Argentina. Today, only two groups are known, the first one located in the Nevados de Chillán-Lake Laja area, and the second one located in Southern Patagonia.
It lives in forests dominated by lenga beech and ñirre bushes, combined with rocky ranges and steep slopes. This species seeks places with large vegetation for food supply and elements that protect them from predators such as the Andean fox and the South American cougar.
According to Fabiola Lara, Bio Bio coordinator of the Endangered Species Preservation Project by the Ministry of Environment, FAO and the Global Environment Facility (GEF), the huemul is one of three deer species found in Chile, besides pudú and taruka.
“It’s a middle-sized species, between 80 centimetres and 1 metre tall. It has a stocky build and short legs, with greyish-brown coat, except for the belly, the tail’s undersides, the eyes’ surroundings and the extreme part of the throat, which are white marked,” she explained in detail.
Bucks may reach, explained Lara, a 65 to 95 kg weight, and does may weigh from 60 to 65. Adult bucks have double-tipped antlers, whose rear branches may be about 30 centimetres long, while the front one is a little shorter. It lives on its own or in 4-member groups and its footprint is up to 8 centimetres long.
“The heat period occurs in the autumn (March to May) and the gestation period goes from seven to eight months. Does give birth to one fawn per year, which has a single-coloured foam with no white marks,” added the professional.
Central Zone and Patagonia
Cristián Saucedo, Director of the Wildlife Program from Tompkins Conservation, assured the huemul’s conservation status at national and international levels is “endangered species”, which is the category prior to extinction; in fact the huemul is 15 times more threatened than polar bears.
Saucedo said that, in numeric terms, it’s difficult to tell an exact number, but it has been made some estimations, and an estimate number of huemul population in the world is between 1.500 and 2.000 examples, and their distribution is fundamentally restricted or limited to the Patagonia, both in Chile and Argentina.
He added that the huemul’s habitat originally ranged from O’Higgins Region to the southernmost part of Tierra del Fuego. It has been said, he indicated, of a territorial retraction of up to 90% and, in many of this places, the chances for re-introduction are minimal, as there have been considerable changes in the place they live in.
“In general better conditions, in terms of habitat, are in the Chilean side; that’s reflected on 70% of the world’s huemul population living in our country. Now, a thing more important than knowing what side they’re living in, is focusing and generating actions coordinated between both countries to help preserve large land extensions where this species lives in because, thanks to their conservation, we might be preserving complete ecosystems,” explained the specialist from Tompkins Conservation.
On her part, Fabiola Lara, she affirmed that, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the huemul (Hippocalemus bisulcus) is in the “endangered” category, with their Central Chile’s latest population located on the Andes mountains in Ñuble and Bio Bio regions, which is facing the highest risk due to the high fragmentation of subpopulations, low population density and geographic isolation in relation to the nearest population, located 400 kilometres in Nahuelhuapi (Argentina). “As a project we find ourselves directly working on the ‘Corredor Biológico Nevados de Chillán-Laguna del Laja’ Biosphere Reserve.”
Lara assured that their main threats nowadays are associated to investment projects like the construction of reservoir, hydroelectric and run-of-the-river power stations, electric transmission lines, road improvements and, also, infrastructure for human settlements. “These actions produce a reduction on the species’ habitat, fundamentally the fragmentation of the huemul’s habitat.”
Another threat, according to the specialist, is the effect of climate change, which causes a degradation in the quality and quantity of the habitat, which might affect the current distribution of the species.
Other Threats
Other threats are non-sustainable tourism and livestock activities, which may cause the displacement of the huemul to an inappropriate habitat, besides contracting diseases from bovine and goats. In addition to this, the presence of unleashed dogs causes attacks to this species and fauna in general.
“The presence of exotic deer like the fallow deer and the red deer mean another threat to the huemul. These species compete for food and displace the huemul to a lower-quality habitat. In addition to this, the presence of red deer increases the possibilities of disease transmission,” reaffirmed Fabiola Lara.
In the same line, Andrés Diez, Project Coordinator from Puelo Patagonia, affirmed that the danger of extinction for this species is a reality from Northern to Southern Andes, in fact, he claimed that, in the Puelo Valley, fragmented populations can be seen living in the highest points of mountain ranges (between 900 and 1.400 metres above sea level), which has probably restricted their habitat to those parts as a consequence of the invasion of their original environment, whether it’s caused by human activities, roads or exotic species (dogs, livestock and wild boars).
“Therefore, to this day, we can’t exactly know how difficult it’s their interaction on the land. Besides some individuals have an excellent conservation status, while we have shown some melanoma among others, including some types of scabies that are common among ovine livestock.”
Diez suggested that the main threats for huemules in the Puelo Valley are habitat fragmentation, lack of awareness regarding their existence in most of the local population, hunting of wild boars done with sniffer dogs and livestock-transmitted diseases.
Why preserving Puelo and Cochamó? According to Andrés Diez, the commune of Cochamó has two basins: Cochamó and Puelo rivers. Both basins are of worldwide relevance for the conservation of biodiversity on the planet, with a large part of their extension being declared by UNESCO as “Biosphere Reserve of Temperate Rainforests in the Southern Andes”.
He added that its access conditions have helped preserve one of the most pristine ecosystems in the country, being the habitat for endemic species with conservation problems like the larch tree and the southern river otter.
Also, according to the Project Coordinator from Puelo Patagonia, more than 75% of this land is covered by native forest in good conservation status, and 20% of its area is the headwaters of river basins, which comprise glaciers, lakes, lagoons, herbaceous and shrubby wetlands, contributing ecosystem services crucial for the existence of human populations, the mitigation of climate change and the local regulation of water cycle.
In the same way, Cristián Saucedo affirmed that threats for huemules are dogs, liestock and furtive hunting. The dogs indicated in the attack, which are not necessarily wild dogs, they are the ones with an owner but they do their lives freely. “Hunting, disease, loss of habitat, exotic species like the red deer and the wild boar, are also negative or have an impact, as well as he said that one of the biggest threats is major infrastructure works.”
“Imagine what it means for any huemul population to build a hydroelectric power station or a highway being built in the places they live in, it exposes them and make their territories so much more vulnerable to actions by these negative factors we’re talking about.”
Another thing, warned the expert from Tompkins Conservation, is that huemules naturally have a peaceful behaviour, very curious towards people, and that unfortunately played against them, “given that the colonisation and occupation of places where usually there were huemules, led the inhabitants of these places to kill them easily, with an axe or a knife; they didn’t even need a firearm, because they didn’t run away.”
After this first encounter between humans and huemules, some of them survived, like those in Chillán and Puelo, but now the race is much more unfriendly, very shy; today they let themselves be seen once in a while; in order to avoid risks, they prefer to move across very steep places in the mountains, so no one can see them and they can remain calm, considered Saucedo.
“In the specific case of those found in Patagonia National Park, we have succeeded on making huemules return to their original behaviour, familiar to people, they don’t run away, they have recovered their population and it has been a product of the transition or, in other words, the feraling of the place, where we have eliminated everything considered a threat to the huemul’s life, namely, we took off fencing, livestock and dogs, so in this way, these examples could settle in these places they had lost, choose the best sites, breed, settle in new places and, starting from that, raise individuals settling in all the space into the park.”
Work Deployed
Fabiola Lara, coordinator of the Endangered Species Preservation Project by the Ministry of Environment, FAO and GEF, detailed that it is being currently deployed an environmental education program for the conservation of the huemul, aimed at civil servants, the civil society and educational institutions.
They are specifically working with 17 educational institutions in four communes from the Corredor Biológico Nevados de Chillán-Laguna del Laja Biosphere Reserve, which are San Fabián de Alico, Coihueco, Pinto y Antuco.
The Endangered Species Preservation Project is being developed in four pilot properties, with the aim of implementing good practices in tourism and livestock for the conservation of the huemul.
“These properties are key to develop the compatibility between tourism, livestock developments and the conservation of the huemul. It was prioritised the work on strategic locations that are habitats and adjacent to protected areas, so in this way, conservation efforts are focused on buffer zones of the Corredor Biológico Nevados de Chillán-Laguna del Laja Biosphere Reserve, and connectivity between subpopulations of the species is improved,” claimed Lara.
Course in the Mountains
In San Fabián de Alico, Ñuble, a workshop was held in order to develop a protocol for monitoring huemules in Central Chile.
“The main goal of this course is to prepare key actors from Ñuble and Bio Bio mountains on recognising, looking for clues and huemul monitoring techniques,” claimed Carlos Garcés, an expert from FAO.
The balance, claimed Garcés, is very positive, it had a good reception and there were many people interested in participating, such as mountain guides, mountain assistants, hiking groups and forest rangers. “It’s a great sign that makes us understand that people are interested in knowing more about the species and it brings us motivation to do it again.”
Garcés emphasised that, due to the huemul’s small population size in Central Chile, topography is difficult for studies and there are few people trained for recognising the species.
“It’s necessary to improve skills to recognise the species among actors working at the Andes Mountains in Ñuble and Bio Bio regions. This will help us increase the chances to search for huemules, especially out of State-protected areas. By this monitoring labour, we will get more data of the species’ presence in the Corredor Biológico Nevados de Chillán-Laguna del Laja, a situation that will help us make decisions in terms of conservation.”
Specialised Team
Cristián Saucedo, on the other side, pointed out that Tompkins Conservation has a team specifically dedicated to the Wildlife Program they are working on since 2005 at Patagonia National Park. One of their programs is focused on preserving and restoring the huemul.
Among the tasks of the program is the example capture and putting on collar for the subsequent monitoring of activities and places these individuals move through in order to build a clear map and help the repopulation labour.
Regarding the labour Tompkins Conservation is doing in Argentina, it is highlighted the work restricted to the case of Puelo, a project jointly developed with Puelo Patagonia which began “as a little initiative we presented at National Geographic to try to reveal information about the huemul; that was the objective and, in case we found some huemules, we would make a work strategy with the neighbouring country because, if we found them in that zone, it was likely about a population shared between Chile and Argentina,” explained Saucedo.
Likewise, Andrés Diez, from Puelo Patagonia, claimed the suggested goal was doing a long-term job that guarantees the huemul protection and conservation in Puelo, through a work plan involving research and monitoring, habitat protection, environmental education and the training of local huemul carers.
Codeff
Luciano Pérez, National Director of the National Committee for the Defence of Flora and Fauna (Codeff), sustained that, since 1998, the NGO is the owner of Los Huemules del Niblinto Nature Sanctuary, having an extension of 7.530 hectares, and it’s the protected area located further north of the biosphere reserve.
With the pass of years, explained Pérez, relations with neighbours and joint surveys have improved, agreeing for example that, in Central Chile, the population at Nevados de Chillán-Laguna del Laja is the most endangered, due to their small population size (50 to 80 examples), besides the high fragmentation among meta-populations and geographic isolation (about 400 kilometres from the nearest population).
“In this sense, Los Huemules del Niblinto Nature Sanctuary is a key place for the conservation of huemul population in Central Chile, as it protects reproductive groups of the species.”
Luciano Pérez added that about 30% of the huemul’s habitat in Central Chile is protected under State-protected Wild Areas. In this sense, high-value conservation areas (HVCA) make a large contribution to preserving the habitat and meta-populations of the deer.
“The Department of Protected Wildlife Areas from CONAF and, especially, the Park Ranger Brigades from Los Huemules del Niblinto National Reserve, Ñuble National Reserve and Laguna del Laja National Park, are historical guides of knowledge and conservation of the species. Nonetheless, more state funding is necessary for the conservation of the species through monitoring programs, environmental education and scientific research,” indicated Pérez.
CMPC
Everything started in 2005, when research at CMPC properties, at the highest places from the Andes, the presence of a small huemul population was defined.
That was how the company declared this 4.600-hectare place a High-value Conservation Area (HVCA), with the aim of partnering in the conservation of the huemul and its habitat, controlling threats and creating conditions for the colonisation of environments found in this land.
“It’s currently estimated an overall population closer to 50 examples in the higher Andes Mountains, between Chillán and Los Ángeles,” affirmed Jean Pierre Lasserre, Head of Technology and Planning from CMPC.
The professional explained that, among the main actions made for the conservation of this mammal, is the maintenance of a special area for the protection of the species, at a 1.200-hectare area located in Rucamanqui, and the implementation of access restrictions for livestock and other domestic animals, which may be the source of transmitted diseases.
Since 2014, there have been monitoring works in charge of Conservation Consultant, Rodrigo López, by using 14 camera traps, reflecting the huemul’s presence and indirect indicators, such as tracks and coat. The release of the video data is done two to three times per year.
“Among the following proposed goals is supporting work instances alongside public institutions and bordering owners, in order to prevent production-related activities or tourism from becoming threats to the huemul’s conservation,” explained Jean Pierre Lasserre.
Since 2014, CMPC is doing monitoring works by using 14 camera traps, deployed across approximately 1.200 hectares, reflecting the presence of huemules and indirect indicators like tracks and coat. This monitoring is done by Rodrigo López, specialist who has worked many years in Chile doing research on huemules.
Arauco
Confirming the breeding of endangered species like Darwin’s fox or the huemul and making protection strategies against threats like wild dogs and livestock, are part of preventive actions materialised to protect Chilean native fauna, thanks to the use of cameras from CONAF at national parks, and by Arauco at their high-value conservation areas (HVCA).
The use of recording devices makes easier to monitor the behaviour of fauna found in these protected areas, which began one decade ago as a pioneer project for detecting the presence and distribution of Darwin’s fox, at Arauco’s properties from Bio Bio to Araucanía, and the subsequent following of huemul families found in the mountains at Ñuble National Reserve.
Arauco’s Head of the Fauna Conservation Program, Raúl Briones, explained that the idea of putting these devices appeared in 2012, motivated by finding the so-called Chilote fox, whose presence was only known on the island, and its population didn’t exceed 600 examples. For this purpose, 80 cameras were deployed across some of the company’s high-value conservation areas, which have even detected examples at some places from Valdivia.
The professional detailed that the technique consists of putting automated cameras into grids held onto tree logs or ribs, at paths, burrow entrances or other habitats, filming species without altering their routines, which has benefited the knowledge of fauna, especially middle and large sized mammals.
The executive added that the main value of the project relies on helping find certainty on presence and biological cycles of species that weren’t recorded, such as huemules, kodkods, skunks and cougars.
Arauco currently has 21 cameras whose deployment is changing according to the year’s season, through a Species Monitoring Plan with an emphasis on huemules, at the High-value Conservation Area in Ñuble.
The analysis of this information is in charge of an expert board integrated by a multi-disciplinary team. One of its members, consultant Rodrigo López, who affirmed that four people are monitoring wild fauna, particularly those species with conservation problems, which are huemules, viscachas, pampas cats and foxes, with the aim of anticipating threats or any disease.
With a weight slightly under 300 grams and slightly over 30 centimetres long, camera traps have become a powerful and practical tool.
Its main characteristic is having a movement sensor that activates recording when perceiving an animal, taking a first picture and, later, recording a video under 15 seconds long at a distance of up to 30 metres. “With this data, emphasised López, we make the goal of finding certainty on the presence of species, the places it occurs, day, time, temperature at the recording time and the season with the most activity within a year.”
Good practices for the conservation of the huemul:
- Reporting actions threatening their survival.
- Not allowing stray or unleashed dogs.
- Keeping your pets and livestock in good conditions, removing parasites and vaccinating them appropriately.
- Not doing unauthorised native forest management.
- Preventing wildfires and making fires at authorised places.
- Not getting livestock into protected areas and preventing strolls on the huemul’s habitat.
- Moving through established paths at protected areas.
- In case of spotting an example, act carefully and report the sighting.