Red Brocket Deer
Mazama americana
Makushi name: Usari
Creole name: Bush Deer
Size: body=90 cm; weight=22 kg
Description: Medium-sized deer with a rounded body and arched back. It has a distinctive hunched posture with the rump higher than the shoulders or head. Short, straight antlers in male (female lacks antlers). Body and legs reddish brown, belly paler, but usually not sharply demarcated from sides; throat and chest whitish; short tail white below. Ears and legs relatively short compared to the Grey Brocket. Young reddish brown with white spots. Eyeshine bright yellowish-white.
Activity: Active day or night, terrestrial.
Habits: Usually solitary (sometimes occurs in pairs). Most often seen in morning, at dusk or at night while foraging on a variety of fungi, fruit, flowers and vegetation, or when flushed from a bed. When alarmed it may raise the tail showing the white underside as a flag. Often seen moving along creek beds at night. Usually silent, it may give a whistling snort when alarmed.
Habitat: Primary and secondary forest.
Signs: Distinctive tracks are about 25 mm in width, with split hoof prints tapering smoothly to narrow tips. Entire track triangular in outline. Tracks of peccaries are similar but have rounded tips.
Status: Often common.
Distribution in Iwokrama