Zoology

Pudu mephistophiles wetmorei

Abstract

Our Natural History Museum collection has, in addition to the Tipo, several other specimens of this rare and interesting species, of very restricted distribution. Among these is a beautiful adult female specimen, obtained in the Páramo de Guanacas, northeast of Popayán, by Roberto Ayerbe G., on May 2, 1956, which presents an interesting case of partial albinism, consisting of areas of white fur on the cheeks, forehead, throat, head and upper part of the neck and two peculiar bands of the same color that almost unite on the withers, where they are wider, to descend, thinning over the shoulders and going towards the base of the neck where they end almost at the armpits, similar to the collar of the collared peccary or collared peccary. The rest of the body is covered, almost uniformly, by a coat of dark brown background, in which hairs of the normal coloration can be seen, ending in golden yellow tips, all mixed with abundant hairs completely white, more abundant in the upper parts than towards the lower side of the flanks. This distribution of white hairs gives the whole animal a remarkable overall very light coloration.