Pampas deer
The Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) is a species of deer that live in the grasslands of South America at low elevations.[3] They are known as veado-campeiro in Portuguese and as venado or gama in Spanish.
Their habitat includes water and hills, often with winter drought, and grass that is high enough to cover a standing deer.[4] Many of them live on the Pantanal wetlands, where there are ongoing conservation efforts, and other areas of annual flooding cycles. Human activity has changed much of the original landscape.[5]
They are known to live up to 12 years in the wild, longer if captive, but are threatened due to over-hunting and habitat loss.[6] Many people are concerned over this loss, because a healthy deer population means a healthy grassland, and a healthy grassland is home to many species, some also threatened. Many North American birds migrate south to these areas, and if the Pampas deer habitat is lost, they are afraid these bird species will also decline.[7] There are approximately 80,000 Pampas deer total, with the majority of them living in Brazil.[8]
Fossil records indicate that New World deer traveled to South America from North America as part of the Great American Interchange around 2.5 million years ago, following the formation of the Isthmus of Panama. They rapidly evolved into different species, with only a few surviving today. Due to the large continental glaciers and the high soil acidity in areas where there were no glaciers, a huge part of the fossil record has been destroyed, so there is no indication of what these early New World deer looked like. Fossil records begin with clear differentiation and are close to what they look like now. The Pampas deer evolved as plains dwellers; their direct ancestor first appeared during the Pleistocene epoch.[9][10]
The deer may have evolved without culling predators[clarification needed] because when alarmed, they stamp their feet, have a particular trot and whistle, and deposit odor.[3] Pampas deer have a similar gene pattern to the related marsh deer of the genus Blastocerus, having two fused chromosomes.[3]
Pampas deer are among the most genetically polymorphic mammals. Their current high nucleotide diversity shows that they had very large numbers in the recent past.[9]
