2013 Bioparque M'Bopicua

Pampas deer, Ozotoceros bezoarticus

Another Neotropical deer species now gone from Europe. Are there any in the US?

Not that I'm aware of.

~Thylo

As far as I know, there are no Pampas deer (Ozotoceros bezoarticus) in the United States currently, but three American zoos have exhibited the species in the past, the zoos that had them were Bronx Zoo, San Antonio Zoo and San Diego Zoo. San Diego Zoo imported theirs from the Berlin Zoo in the 1970s, but San Antonio Zoo and Bronx Zoo had Pampas deer before San Diego got theirs, but I do not know how or where those specimens were sourced from, about Pampas deer in Europe, 3 subspecies have been imported into Europe, those subspecies were Ozotoceros bezoarticus bezoarticus which is the Brazilian pampas deer, Ozotoceros bezoarticus leucogaster which is the Chacoan pampas deer, and Ozotoceros bezoarticus celer which is the Argentine pampas deer. Neotropical deer are WAY too overlooked and under appreciated and I think that it would be very beneficial to their conservation if they were exhibited in more zoos more often because when people think of deer, what usually comes to mind is an image of a White tailed deer in North America or a Red deer or Fallow deer in Europe and that needs to change and peoples knowledge needs to be expanded if we want these species to remain alive, the only problem here in the United States is that there is some USDA law that wont allow the import of South American deer and that is why we wont see rare neotropical cervids like Pampas deer, Marsh deer, Gray brocket, Merida brocket, Hippocamelus ssp. etc.

By the way GREAT photo and impressive looking specimen !!!, thanks for posting Giant eland !!!

Southern Pudu are really the only neotropical deer represented in U.S. zoos apart from one or two brocket deer.

~Thylo

Yes that is very true, Southern pudu and one Mazama ssp. are it, the brocket deer species that is represented in American collections is the Central american red brocket (Mazama temama), they are at Gladys Porter Zoo, Phoenix Zoo, Bergen County Zoo and Shadow Nursery. The sign in front of their exhibit at Gladys Porter Zoo says Mazama americana which is incorrect, I knew what I was looking at and that was for sure a Central american red brocket (Mazama temama). The neotropical deer species besides the 3 mentioned that have been imported into the United States are the Yucatan brown brocket (Mazama pandora) which they had at Los Angeles Zoo and Gladys Porter Zoo, Marsh deer (Blastocerus dichotomus) which they had at the San Diego Zoo, and also the North andean huemul (Hippocamelus antisensis) which they had a Bronx Zoo.