During the last 2 weeks I was able to visit 4 animal-collections on the Yucatan peninsula and in 2 of them I 've seen the rare and endemic Yucatan brocket deer. At Parque Zoologico del Centenario in Merida this species is kept in 2 different enclosures, one holding a pair and the other a small group of at least 6 animals. One of them was still pretty young so I guess they are breeding here. At Xcaret I found the species in 2 different enclosures but it's well possible that I missed other enclosures because the park is quite complicated build up. In the 2 enclosures I saw them one ( near the 'breeding farm' - in which large numbers of Scarlet macaws are kept and bred - holds a female and her young. In th other enclosure I saw a small group of about 6 animals. Both enclosures were quite bar and unatractive but the animals all looked healthy. During the 2 weeks in Yucatan I also saw a Brocket deer kept on a privat hachienda but wasn't able to find out if it was a Yucatan brocket deer ( the distance from were I could see the animal was to large and there wasn't anybody whom I could ask.... 2 other collections which also could have the species, were not visited by me due to lack of time and bad weather conditions ( which I didn't had eexpect in Mexico ! ) are Zoologico Bio Universo Chetumal which has the species pictured on their zoo-plan and Parque Zoologico Animaya near Merida. Maybe some other ZooChatters can provide more information if the Yucatan brocket deer is kept in ither of these 2 collections. It would be also nice to get more information about other collections ( either public or privat ) which are working with this species.
When I went to Xcaret they only had 4 individuals, so unless they had them behind the scenes the population is rapidly growing or they adquired new individuals.
So there are at least 3 zoological collections with yuatan brockets, which are xcaret,merida and chetumal. This very good because the protected areas with these deer, rio largartos and sian kan are very far apart.
Yes, Animaya has a pair of yucatan brocket deer held with nando the baird´s tapir. So there are 4 collections with the yucatan brocket deer, all on the peninsula, Xcaret, Animaya, Parque centenario and Chetumal. Is it time to consider an export ? These deer are very delicate animals. Would any U.S. or european zoo recieve them Again, maybe the yucatan brockets only do well in their native range, like volcano rabbits or teporingos.
Thanks for this update carlos55 ! Hopefully the 4 collections can work-out some kind of breeding-programme and as soon as surplus animals become avaible other ( US, European ? ) collections can get involved in this breeding-programme.
By just sniffing around in some old books I came along the International Zooyear Book Vol 24/25 and here an US-collection makes note of the birth of a female Yucatan brown brocket during 1982 ! At the Brownsville Zoo the species was kept in this period althrough they gave it subspecies-level ( Mazama gouazoubira pandora ). Would be nice if some ZooChatter known more about the holding and breeding of this species in the USA.
In the International Zooyear Book vol. 24/25 I found the article : An historical overview of selected rare ruminants in captivity written by Thomas W.D et all. Here he deal with the Yucatan brocket as a subspecies of the Brown brocket ( Mazama gouazoubira ). Here his note about the Yucatan brocket : The history of the Yucatan group is particularly sad. Originaly 2.2 animals were acquired by Brownsville and for a time their reproductive rate was satisfactory. A 'surplus' pair sent to Los Angeles produced second generation young but only females survived and breeding was at an end when the adult male died. Meanwhile at Brownsville all exept one male had succumbed to stress and disease. Theremmants of the 2 groups were put together in an attemp to retrieve the situation but when the Brownsville male died, the Yucatan group in North America was represented by only 3 females and no mate has become available to join them.
