The Little Red Brocket (Mazama rufina), also known as the Ecuador Red Brocket, is a small, little-studied deer

Deer

Deer are the ruminant mammals forming the family Cervidae. Species in the Cervidae family include white-tailed deer, elk, moose, red deer, reindeer, fallow deer, roe deer and chital. Male deer of all species and female reindeer grow and shed new antlers each year...

 native to the Andes

Andes

The Andes is the world's longest continental mountain range. It is a continual range of highlands along the western coast of South America. This range is about long, about to wide , and of an average height of about .Along its length, the Andes is split into several ranges, which are separated...

 of Colombia

Colombia

Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...

, Ecuador

Ecuador

Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...

 and northern Peru

Peru

Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....

, where found in forest and páramo

Páramo

The term páramo can refer to a variety of ecosystems. Some ecologists describe the páramo broadly as “all high, tropical, montane vegetation above the continuous timberline”. A more narrow term classifies the páramo according to its regional placement - specifically located in “the northern Andes...

 at altitudes between 1400 and 3600 m (4,593.2 and 11,811 ft). It is one of the smallest brocket deer

Brocket Deer

Brocket deer are the species of deer in the genus Mazama. They are medium to small in size, and are found in the Yucatán Peninsula, Central and South America, and the island of Trinidad. Most species are primarily found in forests. They are superficially similar to the African duikers and the Asian...

. The coat is reddish, and the legs and crown are blackish. As recently as 1999, some authorities included both the Pygmy Brocket

Pygmy Brocket

The Pygmy Brocket, Mazama nana, is a brocket deer species from South America. It is found in Argentina, southern Brazil and Paraguay. It is a small deer with short legs, weighing . It is reddish-brown in color....

 (M. nana) and Merida Brocket

Merida Brocket

The Mérida Brocket , also known as the Merioa Brocket or Rufous Brocket, is a small species of deer. It is found in forest and páramo at altitudes of in the Andes of northern Colombia and western Venezuela...

 (M. bricenii) as subspecies

Subspecies

Subspecies in biological classification, is either a taxonomic rank subordinate to species, ora taxonomic unit in that rank . A subspecies cannot be recognized in isolation: a species will either be recognized as having no subspecies at all or two or more, never just one...

 of the Little Red Brocket.

The Little Red Brocket may have formed an important part of the diet of the people of the Pleistocene Las Vegas culture.