The Central American red brocket (''Mazama temama'') is a species of
brocket deer ranging from southern
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
, through
Central America
Central America is a subregion of North America. Its political boundaries are defined as bordering Mexico to the north, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean to the east, and the Pacific Ocean to the southwest. Central America is usually ...
, to northwestern
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country primarily located in South America with Insular region of Colombia, insular regions in North America. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Caribbean Sea to the north, Venezuel ...
.
Taxonomy
In 1792 Robert Kerr originally described it as a unique separate species as opposed to a subspecies. It was treated as a
subspecies
In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...
of the
red brocket (''Mazama americana'') from
South America
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 ...
, but its
karyotype
A karyotype is the general appearance of the complete set of chromosomes in the cells of a species or in an individual organism, mainly including their sizes, numbers, and shapes. Karyotyping is the process by which a karyotype is discerned by de ...
has
2n = 50, while the latter's was initially described as having 2n = 68–70.
However, a more recent description gives the red brocket a variable karyotype with 2n ranging from 48 to 54, suggesting it represents several species.
It is sympatric with the
Yucatan brown brocket (''Odocoileus pandora'') over part of its range. Additionally, it was estimated that ''Mazama temama'' diverged from other red brocket deer about 2 MYA. This was estimated through analysis of concatenated sequences from the mitochondrial gene ND2, Cytb, and tRNA-Pro-Control region.
[Escobedo-Morales, L. A., Mandujano, S., et al. (2016). First phylogenetic analysis of Mesoamerican brocket deer Mazama pandora and Mazama temama (Cetartiodactyla: Cervidae) based on mitochondrial sequences: Implications for Neotropical deer evolution bstract Mammalian Biology, 81(3), 303-313. doi:10.1016/j.mambio.2016.02.003]
Habitat
The species is found in primary and secondary tropical forest at altitudes from sea level to 2800 m.
Conservation
In Mexico, it is regarded as an agricultural pest by bean farmers.
It is probably threatened by hunting and
deforestation
Deforestation or forest clearance is the removal and destruction of a forest or stand of trees from land that is then converted to non-forest use. Deforestation can involve conversion of forest land to farms, ranches, or urban use. Ab ...
.
Due to not much being known about the species, it is rated as
Data Deficient
A data deficient (DD) species is one which has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as offering insufficient information for a proper assessment of conservation status to be made. This does not necessaril ...
on 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 ...
.
References
*
Ungulates of Central America
Mazama (genus)
Mammals described in 1792
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