New species of mammal is discovered in Peru – 03/10/2024 – Science

A new species of deer has been found in northern Peru: the Pudella carlae or pudu from the Peruvian jungle.

It has been many years since researchers discovered the pudu, a small, dark-skinned deer that inhabits large territories from Argentina to Colombia.

As far as was known, there were two species with this name: the pudu pudawhich inhabits the forests of the southern border between Argentina and Chile, and the Pudu mephistophilesalso known as small or northern pudu, considered the smallest species of deer on the planet.

This second species lives in mountain regions located between Peru, Ecuador and some areas of Colombia.

But now researchers from the Mastozoology Division of the Ornithology and Biodiversity Center of Peru have managed to demonstrate that Pudu mephistophilesin fact, include two different species.

One of them is the typical form, which inhabits the Peruvian region of Huancabamba and extends to the north of South America.

And the other is Pudella carlaeendemic to Peru and living in the south of the Huancabamba depression (about a thousand kilometers north of Lima).

The new species, Pudella carlae, was observed in the southeast of the Huancabamba depression in northern Peru.

This is the first discovery of a new deer species in 60 years in America and the first in the 21st century worldwide.

What are the diferences

In recent years, with the aim of improving conservation projects in areas inhabited by rare mammals (such as the pudu), Sernanp (National Service of Protected Natural Areas of the State of Peru) has carried out several studies in different habitats.

These studies, carried out by Peruvian scientist Javier Barrio, indicated that these two species were different, despite having been classified as the same animal for years.

After several genetic and morphological analyses, the team was able to demonstrate that the pudu specimens that inhabited the southern region of the Huancabamba depression are different from those in the north.

They have two differences, explains Guillermo D’Elía, professor at the Universidad Austral de Chile, who participated in the research, to BBC News Mundo, the BBC’s Spanish service.

The first is your body composition. A Pudella carlae it is larger, its fur is darker and the shape of its ears is not similar.

And the second difference is genetic. “The lineages of the two animals do not coincide for them to be called the same species,” says D’Elía.

The origin of the name

Another decision was to give it a scientific name in accordance with the discovery made.

Pudu comes from the word püdu which in Mapudungun, the Mapuche language, means “the deer”.

The Mapuche called the species that came from Chile and Argentina that way.

Over the years, it was also decided to call those found in Peru and Ecuador that way.

It’s the name carlae comes from one of the scientists who worked on researching these animals, Carla Gazzolo.

“The common name we propose is Peruvian yunga pudu. The yunga, which can be found in Peru, are these forested areas where these animals live”, explains the academic.

For D’Elía, the importance of this discovery lies not only in finding new species amid the environmental threats of today’s world, but also in providing more information about the deer species that inhabit the American continent.

“We don’t know much about their natural history. We don’t know how they move, how they feed, how they mate. That’s why it’s important to continue in the area and study them”, he highlights.

The researchers also highlight that this data is fundamental for the conversation of these mammals.

The original text was published here.