The “Taruca”

GENERAL INFORMACION OF THE NATURAL MONUMENT

The “Taruca” or “Venado Andino” ( Hippocamelus antisensis ), inhabitant of “prepuneñas” steppes and high pastures, only can be found in the top of hills, between 1.800 and 3.500 metres height.Pastures, bushes and impressive rocky “faldeos” and “escarpados” from Jujuy, Salta, Tucuman, Catamarca and La Rioja mountains compose its habitat. Also lives in Chile, Bolivia and Peru, where it is called “Aymara Taruca”, although is locally known as stag.The “taruca” or “huemul del norte” lives in pastures of the high floors of the hills, in groups of fifteen. They very unsociable and escapes at the first danger sign. Its aspect and size are similar to the “huemul”. It has an eye-catching horns and a black spot on its face that differences the male from the female.A few time ago groups of forty animals travel freedom around their vast and large habitat. Nowadays only a few of them survive alone and altered in reduce territories. The environment became dangerous and hostile. Nobody knows how many stags still exists, but in many places where they used to live disappeared. Nowadays their situation is critic and their hunt is prohibited in the whole country.

HABITAT
Pasture, the habitat where the taruca lives, is distributed in “isles” along the mountains. The corridors that used to connect them disappeared because of human action. These natural barriers created in “taruca's” habitat gives their populations an insular appearance. The isolation and small populations are very important points to pay attention on for the future survival of the specimen in Argentina, because small population lost virility.