Resurgence of
endangered deer in Patagonian ‘Eden'
highlights conservation success
April 2013.
The Huemul, a species of deer found only in Patagonia,
is bouncing back from the brink of possible extinction as a result of
collaboration between conservationists and the Chilean government, according to
a new study.
Controlling
cattle farming and poaching
By controlling cattle farming and policing to prevent poaching in the Bernardo
O'Higgins National Park - a vast "natural Eden" covering 3.5 million hectares -
conservation efforts have allowed the deer to return to areas of natural
habitat from which it had completely disappeared.
Researchers
are hailing the findings as an example of collaborations between local
government and scientists leading to real conservation success, and a possible
model for future efforts to maintain the extraordinary biodiversity found in
this part of Chile.
99% reduction
- Just 2,500 deer left
A national symbol that features on the Chilean coat-of-arms, Huemul deer are
estimated to have suffered reductions of 99 per cent in size since the 19th
century, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
Researchers believe 50 per cent of this decline has come in recent years, with
only 2,500 deer now left in the wild.
Easy prey
The Huemul is a naturally tame and approachable animal, which led to it
becoming easy prey for hunters, particularly with the arrival of European
colonists in the area who would hunt Huemul for meat to feed their dogs. Recent
increases by local farmers in the practice of releasing cattle indiscriminately
into national parkland for retrieval later in the year has damaged the habitats
of endemic wildlife such as the Huemul, and, coupled with continued hunting of
the species, deer populations plummeted.
The joint
efforts of conservationists and researchers with government and private
initiatives created a small number of field stations in this remote natural
paradise on the tip of South America - one of
the least populated areas of the world, requiring a boat trip of two days along
the region's stunning fjords to reach.
This created a
base for monitoring endangered species and natural habitats, as well as a team
of park rangers enforcing conservation laws that - although they had been in
place since the late sixties - had never been policed on the ground.
The impact was
almost immediate, within five short years - from 2004 to 2008 - the Huemul
population in the national park not only stabilised but also began to increase,
with deer coming down from the hostile mountain areas it had sought refuge in
and back to the sea-level valleys where it naturally thrives.
National parks
must exist on more than paper
"National parks are at the heart of modern conservation, but there has to
be an investment in management and protection on the ground. You can't just
have a ‘paper park', where an area is ring-fenced on a map but physically
ignored," said Cristóbal Briceño, a researcher from Cambridge's Department of Archaeology and
Anthropology, who co-authored the study.
"Our
results suggest that synergistic conservation actions, such as cattle removal
and poaching control, brought about by increased infrastructure, can lead to
the recovery of species such as the threated Huemul."
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