The Red Brocket Deer In Guyana Are The Largest Of The Brocket Deer!

The Iwokrama Rainforest of Guyana is filled with many species of mammals; all in different shapes, colours and sizes. One such mammal is the red brocket deer; they are the largest of the brocket deer. The deer got its name due to the red overall coloration of its fur. Further, the red brocket is a species of brocket deer from forests in South America, ranging from northern Argentina to Colombia and the Guianas. This article will give more information about this captivating deer found in Guyana.

Features Of The Red Brocket Deer

• Color – Its body is reddish-brown to chestnut red in color, with a lighter grayish-brown head and neck, and partially blackish legs. The inner thighs, throat, inner part of the ears and the underside of the tail are white.
• Fawns – Young brockets are born with white spots. They are spotted white over a reddish coat and lack blackish to the legs.
• Males – Males tend to be larger than females and have spikes to protect against predators.
• Antlers – Only the adult male has antlers, and these are small and spike-like.
• Height & Weight – The shoulder height is 67–80 cm (26–31 in), tail length measures 8 to 15 cm and the head and body length 105–144 cm (41–57 in). These deer typically weigh 24–48 kg (53–106 lb), but exceptional males may get as large as 65 kg (143 lb).

Scientific Classification Of The Red Brocket Deer

Red Brocket Deer – Mazama Americana [Scientific name]

• Kingdom: Animalia
• Phylum: Chordata
• Class: Mammalia
• Order: Artiodactyla
• Family: Cervidae
• Subfamily: Capreolinae
• Genus: Mazama
• Species: M. americana

Male Red Brocket Deer (Mazama americana). Image credit: Bernard DUPONT https://www.flickr.com/photos/berniedup/

Habitat Of The Red Brocket Deer

Red brockets live in dense tropical forests with closed canopies and prefer either moist or really dry climates. They tend to stay near marshes, swamps, and streams along thick vegetative cover. Their small body size helps them to move easily through water and dense vegetation and remain unnoticed by predators. When night falls, red brockets forage on forest edges, in agricultural fields, and in gardens.

Diet Of The Red Brocket Deer

Red brocket diets consist mainly of fruit and some leaves and fibrous material. During the wet season when food availability is low, their diet may consist mainly of fungi. In extreme cases where fruit and fungi become scarce, it may eat stems, bark, petioles, leaves, and animal matter instead.

Reproduction Of The Red Brocket Deer

In the northeastern Peruvian Amazon, red brocket deer conceive during all months of the year except between September and October. In Suriname, they reproduce from September to April. Depending on where the red brocket deer are located, they may have peaks in conception during the dry seasons. Females between the ages of 0 and 4 years are more capable of birthing two offspring, whereas females between the ages of 4 and 6 years usually only produce one. Females reach sexual maturity around 11 months of age and males reach maturity around 12 months of age. (Little information is known about the mating systems of red brockets.)

Did You Know? Red brockets live between 7 and 12 years of age, but due to the elusiveness of this species, it is difficult to obtain sufficient data.

10 Facts About The Red Brocket Deer

1. The red brocket deer is generally solitary and stays in dense jungles. When alarmed, the animal snorts or stomps its hooves.
2. Red brockets provide valuable meat and a means of trade for humans. Red brockets are also the main source of food for jaguars and pumas.
3. Red brockets stand low to the ground, have a reddish-brown fur color to camouflage with the tropical vegetation in the background, and are well adapted for moving through thick vegetative matter.
4. Red brockets are extremely hard to research because of the habitat in which they live and their predator avoidance techniques.
5. If they are spotted by a predator or can hear something approaching, they sometimes freeze in place.
6. When in more immediate danger, red brockets leap through the vegetative forest or swim across to the other side of a river.
7. Red brockets are both diurnal and nocturnal. They are extremely shy and wary which makes them difficult to observe.
8. Once the female gives birth, it will hide the young and leave it for an unknown period of time before coming back and nursing it until it has reached sexual maturity.
9. Red brocket deer are essential within the Amazonian ecosystem—their grazing creates habitat and also disperses seeds.
10. The males alone carry the simple antlers which grow 10-13 cm / 4-5.2 inches in length. Generally, just a spike, the antlers may be forked in very old animals. Like many tropical deer, a male red brocket may keep his antlers for over a year.

Red Rocket Deer In Guyana

The red brocket is the largest species of the brocket deer. This mammal exhibits a heavy build and slender legs. This article would have shown you that the red brocket is so called due to the red overall coloration of its fur, although it has white patches inside the legs, throat, lips, inner parts of the ears as well as the lower part of the tail. Juveniles are distinguished by whitish markings on their bodies. They have antlers, like most deer species. However, the antlers of these animals are merely short spikes, resembling daggers. Red brocket may carry their antlers for more than a year, shedding them at any time of the year.

Article References:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_brocket
• https://animaldiversity.org/accounts/Mazama_americana/
• http://animalia.bio/red-brocket
• https://www.anywhere.com/flora-fauna/mammal/corzuela-colorada
• http://www.ultimateungulate.com/Artiodactyla/Mazama_americana.html
• Main Image: By Postdlf, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=9773749