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Article << Previous     |     Next >>   Contents Vol 52(8)

Variation in reproduction of a temperate deer, the southern pudu (Pudu puda)

Fernando Vidal A B C D J, Jo Anne M. Smith-Flueck D E J, Werner T. Flueck D E F G H and Luděk Bartoš I

A Fundación Fauna Andina Los Canelos, Casilla 102 Km 11, Villarica, Chile.
B University Santo Tomas, School of Veterinarian Medicine, Conservation Unit, Temuco, Chile.
C Unidad de Ecologia Aplicada, Instituto del Medio Ambiente, Universidad de la Frontera, Temuco, Chile.
D Captive Breeding Specialist Group, IUCN/SSC, Geneva, Switzerland.
E Institute of Natural Resources Analysis (IARN) – Patagonia, Universidad Atlántida Argentina, C.C. 592, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
F National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (CONICET), Rivadavia 1917, 1033 Buenos Aires, Argentina.
G Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, University of Basel, Socinstrasse 57, 4051 Basel, Switzerland.
H Fundación Bariloche, C.C. 592, 8400 Bariloche, Argentina.
I Department of Ethology, Institute of Animal Science, Praha 10 – Uhříněves, 104 01, Czech Republic.
J Corresponding authors. Email: fauna.andina@gmail.com; j.smith@deerlab.org

Animal Production Science 52(8) 735-740 http://dx.doi.org/10.1071/AN11364
Submitted: 22 December 2011  Accepted: 27 March 2012   Published: 12 June 2012
 
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Abstract

Pudu (Pudu puda), occurring in the southern cone of Latin America, has been classified as vulnerable by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), yet little is known about this animal in the wild, with most knowledge on the breeding behaviour coming from captive animals. For this second-smallest deer in the world, delayed implantation has been suggested to explain the two peaks in the annual cycle of male sexual hormones on the basis of the accepted tenet that the breeding period occurs only once a year, between March and June. However, in the present study, birth dates from fawns born at the Los Canelos semi-captive breeding centre in Chile and male courting behaviour revealed the possibility of two rutting periods: autumn and spring. To our knowledge, this is the first time that late-fall births (May through early June for 17% of fawns in the study population) have been recorded for the southern pudu; two of these four births were conceived by females in the wild. From zoo and captive-animal birth records (n = 97), only three fawns were born in the fall. For all births combined (n = 121), 77% occurred in spring. The roe deer (Capreolus capreolus) and Pere David deer (Elaphurus davidianus) have been considered the only two temperate cervids in which sexual activity is initiated by increasing daylength and which breed in early summer. Yet, the present results indicate a similar response from the southern pudu when under a wild or semi-captive environment, with breeding taking place in spring. These results suggest that this species may either have two reproductive periods per year or retains the capacity to be a breeder for a much more extended period of time than documented by earlier studies. Pudu, like other temperate deer, is responsive to photoperiod for timing its breeding period, but may further optimise its production of offspring by also responding to other environmental cues such as seasonal variation in food supply when climatic conditions are favourable.

Additional keywords: aseasonal reproduction, austral, parturition, subtropical breeding, Valdivian rainforest.


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