The national animal of Chile is the huemul deer. This is a species of deer also known as the South Andean deer, which is found in the mountains of Chile and Argentina. They have a prominent place on Chile’s coat of arms and are important symbols to the Chilean people as well as being emblematic of Chile’s natural beauty.
The South Andean deer is only found over a very small range today, meaning that it is very uniquely important to the people of Chile.
It is a vitally important national symbol to the people and due to their conservation status more attention has been drawn to them in recent years than ever before.
Let’s find out more.
What is the national animal of Chile?
The national animal of Chile is the South Andean deer, which is also known locally as the huemul deer.
As mentioned they are native to a relatively small range, being found mostly in Chile but also in Argentina in the mountains.
They are mid-sized and one of two species in the genus Hippocamelus ranging across the cold valleys of the southern Andes.
They are highly adapted to this rough, difficult terrain, possessing strong, short legs and a very stocky build.
They usually have a brown coat though it can range to greyish-brown.
Their throats are marked white, and they have long, curled hairs to shield them against cold weather.
They range from around 150 pounds in the females up to about 200 pounds in the males, and the does stand around 30 inches tall whereas the males reach as tall as 35 inches.
Sexual dimorphism, then, is quite pronounced: the does do not have antlers though the bucks do, and bucks possess a black mask on their faces which the females lack.
Species like this tend not to live in mixed-sex herds. Usually, one male roams with a herd of females, but the South Andean deer often moves in large, mixed-sex groups.
They tend to live in larger groups the closer they are to the steep, rocky mountainsides, which is presumably because they are an easier target for prey the lower down they are and the flatter the land they inhabit.
There is safety in numbers, which may also go some way to explaining their mixed-sex groups.
They usually prefer periglacial scrubland and rocky areas of this kind, though they are also frequently found in upland forests and forest-borders.
There is even some degree of sexual dimorphism in terms of the biomes they inhabit.
Why is the huemul deer the national animal of Chile?
There are a few reasons the huemul deer is the national animal of Chile.
As mentioned, the coat of arms of Chile features on the one side a condor and on the other side a huemul deer.
The animal, then, is very important to the people of Chile on a symbolic level. It represents, among other things, freedom and strength as well as community and unity.
Given their more or less unique range in Chile and parts of Argentina, they are seen as very specific embodiments of the land itself.
They embody Chilean natural beauty; rugged, mountainous, often cold and unforgiving at the highest elevations.
The huemul deer is hardy in the face of these tough conditions which are pretty much par for the course in Chile, so on that level they are more literal embodiments of the country’s natural landscape.
On the other hand, there is the problem of conservation.
We’ll look at their conservation status shortly, but making an animal a country’s national animal is often a decision informed by the desire to bring awareness to their plight.
Awareness is of course only one step in conservation, but it is nonetheless a very important one.
Why is the South Andean deer endangered?
South Andean deer are endangered for a couple of reasons.
They are, though, mostly the same story you hear of virtually every endangered species.
On the one hand, there is the question of hunting.
They have been a protected species since 2006, incidentally the same year that they were added to the coat of arms.
But hunting has reduced their populations.
The other problem is of the loss of their habitat in some areas.
Though they are well adapted to open plains of which there are still many, much of the land they once roamed is now less than habitable.
How many South Andean deer are left?
It’s estimated that there are only around 1,500 South Andean deer left in the wild.
This, staggeringly, represents a reduction in their population figures of around 99% since our records began.
They are considered key animals to the local ecosystem so such a massive reduction in their numbers has had considerable effects on the wide ecology, too.
Efforts are being made to reintroduce the species and to increase wild populations, but most groups are now fragmented and there are estimated to be around 100 individual groups and herds across Chile’s mountain ranges.
They are, then, in a very precarious position.
So, efforts will certainly need to be made to ensure the future survival of this species.
But such efforts are already underway and it may well be that their population begins to bounce back in the coming years and decades.
It remains to be seen, but in any case, the animal remains a very important symbol to the people of Chile in several ways.