It is the smallest of the deer living in Mexico, a discreet deer of the Yucatán peninsula jungle that rarely is seen, preferring to move hidden between dense vegetation of the sotobosque instead of exposing itself in open zones as other deer of greater size. Unlike the deer of white cola, with which it shares part of its area, it does not form groups or develop branched cornments: the males carry only two simple horns and short, without additional spots. It lives exclusively in the Yucatán peninsula, in the same wet and dry tropical jungle, an area that has suffered a considerable transformation by agricultural and livestock expansion in the last decades. Its scientific name has been the subject of taxonomic debate among specialists, who discuss whether it should be included in the gender that deer
Small, notably smaller than the white-collar vein, uniform red brown coat, compact body and relatively short legs. The males carry simple and short horns, without branches, very different from the branched cornamenta of the white-collar vein; it also differs by its much smaller size and by moving always hidden between dense vegetation instead of in open zones.
Fractured footprint with two sharp pieces, 3-4 cm, notably smaller and narrower than that of the white tail vein, with which it shares habitat in part of its area. Excrements in the form of oval bolitas, 1-1.3 cm, left in small clusters scattered by paths of the sotobosque. It leaves narrow and low paths through dense vegetation, very different from the wider steps of the white tail vein, and marks of horn rubbing in thin stems during the season of zeal.
Tropical rainforest and dry tropical rainforest of low lands, with dense sotobosque. endemic of the Yucatán peninsula, in southeast Mexico, Belize and northern Guatemala.
Herbivorous, it feeds on leaves, tender springs, fallen fruit and fungus from the subsoil of the jungle where it lives.
Solitary or in couples, of discreet and evasive habits, it moves hidden between dense vegetation avoiding open zones.It is mainly nocturnal and crepuscular activity, and does not form large groups like other species of deer.
Its populations are considered to be in continued decline due to subsistence hunting and forest loss in the Yucatán peninsula, with an estimated reduction of more than 30% in the last three generations.
Unregulated subsistence and sports hunting, deforestation and fragmentation of the jungle by agricultural and livestock expansion in the Yucatán peninsula.
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