BIOLOGICAL AND ECOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS

The continuing lack of well-substantiated information about huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus) results in reliance on early sources of interpretations. The repeated citing of such hearsay is scrutinized here for their validity. Huemul antlers provide clues about well-being and past changes as up to 5 tines have been documented historically. Antlers are misinterpreted by erroneously considering >2 tines as abnormal. The question is: “What conditions in the past allowed many tines, and allowed antler expressions to be closer to the species norm? ” Significant past changes resulted in only few early records of large groups, abundance and killing many huemul. Current orthodox descriptions of huemul are based on little data from remnant populations in marginal habitats. Relying on such biased information results in circular reasoning when interpreting zooarcheology, paleodiets, prehistoric distribution, and huemul ecology in general. Claims of inadequate antipredator response due to evolutionary absence of cursorial predators is unsupported as several Canis species arrived together with cervids, overlapping with dogs having arrived with paleoindians. Huemul reactions toward dogs are similar to other Odocoilines. However, any predation event in severely reduced huemul subpopulations may be important due to dynamics of small populations. There is no evidence that livestock or red deer (Cervus elaphus) have caused declines or prevented recovery of huemul. In contrast, huemul have disappeared in numerous areas lacking livestock or red deer, but have persisted elsewhere with livestock for several hundred years. Recent sympatry with red deer affects <2% of huemul populations and in one case livestock outnumber red deer 2100%. Cervids including huemul exhibit great variation in feeding behavior, irrespective of dental and gastrointestinal features, due to flexibility in behavior, physiology and morphology. Although presence of other herbivores will shift spatio-temporal habitat use and affect performance, persistence of multi-species assemblages is the rule, like huemul coexisting with guanaco (Lama guanicoe), pudu (Pudu puda) and livestock. However, impacts from management of livestock, particularly the presence of people and dogs exert heavy pressure on wildlife and create incompatibilities. Concerning diseases from exotic ungulates, huemul coexisted with livestock for several centuries, but only recently in a few cases with red deer (but outnumbered 21-fold by coexisting livestock). Parasites found so far in huemul were only at very low levels. These are mostly considered nonthreatening, are found in red deer but commonly in livestock and therefore occur in most areas with livestock. Thus, the primary factor regarding contagious diseases is feral and free-ranging livestock, and being regularly researched and inspected at slaughter, these provide a good proxy for diseases afflicting sympatric red deer. Additional keywords: Hippocamelus bisulcus, antler, group size, density, predation, diet, competition, diseases. INTRODUCTION In the accompanying paper about historical and zooarcheological considerations (Flueck and SmithFlueck 2011a), we analyzed information regarding historical conditions and how it has influenced current interpretations of the biology and ecology of huemul (Hippocamelus bisulcus). Together with the current paper, the reports aim to improve our understanding of huemul and its conservation. Here we focus on issues related to antlers, group size and density, predation, diet, competition, and diseases to reveal inconsistencies in currently accepted beliefs that do not stand up under closer scrutiny. Securing reliable data is difficult because huemul populations contain few individuals and, those remaining, are located in remote refuge areas. However, a detailed search was conducted in ISI Webof-Knowledge and 17 external databases, three books and three dissertations on huemul, historic and