Huemul Deer Rescue Center Marks First Successful Treatment in Chile’s Chacabuco Valley

During the early 20th century, the Chacabuco Valley’s native grasslands were converted into pastures and fenced farms, displacing the South Andean deer (huemul) and driving the species toward extinction. In the early 2000s, a proposed hydroelectric scheme—HidroAysén—sought to flood roughly 14,000 acres of Patagonian wilderness, but sustained public protests halted the project. Subsequent land acquisition by Doug and Kris Tompkins of Tompkins Conservation paved the way for Patagonia National Park, restoring habitat for the huemul. In 2015, the bacterium *Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis* spread through domestic livestock, causing caseous lymphadenitis (“cheesy gland”) that produced lethal abscesses in wild huemuls already suffering population declines.

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Rewilding Chile, an offshoot of Tompkins Conservation, opened the Huemul Rescue and Rehabilitation Center to address the disease. The center’s inaugural patient, a young stag named “Distraido,” arrived with multiple large abscesses. After a month of intensive antibiotic therapy and monitoring via a high-frequency transmitter, Distraido was declared healthy and released back into his herd, where rangers continue to track his movements.

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• Proposed HidroAysén dams would have inundated ~14,000 acres of the Baker River basin.

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• The 2015 outbreak of *C. pseudotuberculosis* caused widespread caseous lymphadenitis in both livestock and wild huemuls.

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• Distraido represents the first successfully treated and released huemul from the new rehabilitation program.

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Cristian Saucedo, wildlife director at Rewilding Chile, noted that expertise in captive huemul care remains limited, underscoring the significance of the successful treatment. Kristine Tompkins, president of Tompkins Conservation, warned that without such interventions the huemul could disappear, emphasizing the species’ role as a keystone for ecosystem restoration.

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• “There’s very little knowledge of how to work with huemul deer in captivity,” — Cristian Saucedo, wildlife director at Rewilding Chile

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• “Without these interventions, the huemul deer would surely be lost to history,” — Kristine Tompkins, the president

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