The northern pudu (''Pudella mephistophiles'',

Mapudungun Mapuche ( , ; from 'land' and 'people', meaning 'the people of the land') or Mapudungun (from 'land' and 'speak, speech', meaning 'the speech of the land'; also spelled Mapuzugun and Mapudungu) is either a language isolate or member of the s ...

or , , ) is a species of

South American 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 ...

deer native to the

Andes The Andes ( ), Andes Mountains or Andean Mountain Range (; ) are the List of longest mountain chains on Earth, longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range ...

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 ...

Venezuela Venezuela, officially the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, is a country on the northern coast of South America, consisting of a continental landmass and many Federal Dependencies of Venezuela, islands and islets in the Caribbean Sea. It com ...

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

and

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

. It is the world's smallest

deer A deer (: deer) or true deer is a hoofed ruminant ungulate of the family Cervidae (informally the deer family). Cervidae is divided into subfamilies Cervinae (which includes, among others, muntjac, elk (wapiti), red deer, and fallow deer) ...

and is classified as Data Deficient in 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 ...

. Originally classified under genus '' Pudu'', some authorities consider it to belong to a separate genus (''Pudella'') from the southern pudu, along with '' Pudella carlae''.

Description

The northern pudu is the smallest species of deer in the world, standing tall at the shoulder and weighing . The antlers of the northern pudu grow to about long and curve backward. Its coat tends to be lighter than that of the southern pudu, but the face is darker compared to the coat.

Range and habitat

The northern pudu is found at higher altitudes than its sister species, from above

sea level Mean sea level (MSL, often shortened to sea level) is an mean, average surface level of one or more among Earth's coastal Body of water, bodies of water from which heights such as elevation may be measured. The global MSL is a type of vertical ...

. It has a discontinuous range across the Andes of Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru. It inhabits montane forests, high-elevation elfin forests, and humid alpine

páramo Páramo () may refer to a variety of alpine tundra ecosystems located in the Andes Mountain Range, South America. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as "all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline". A narrower ...

grasslands above the tree-line. The Marañón dry forests are a gap in the species' range, separating the Ecuadorian population from the Peruvian population in the

Peruvian Yungas The Peruvian Yungas comprise a tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forest ecoregion in Peru. History During the Inca Empire, the term ''yunga'' referred to both the western and eastern slopes of the Andes and their inhabitants. In the Span ...

south of the Marañón River.

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q1076540 Capreolinae Mammals of Colombia Mammals of Ecuador Mammals of Peru Mammals of Venezuela Taxa named by William Edward de Winton Mammals described in 1896 Fauna of the northwestern Andean montane forests Fauna of the Andes