Book XII, Chapter XXXII

Of the animals the Indians in New Castile call tarucos[1] known as mufros or mouflons[2] in Italy, of which I do not believe there are any in Spain.

Translated by Kristine (Kasey) Drake ’23

In New Castile, where the very rich Atabaliba was king and lord, and where that wretched marquess, don Francisco Pizarro, was governor, there are some animals the size of deer, of hooved feet and in everything like deer, except that the fur is rougher and much thicker and they have no horns. The Indians do not eat them, and they are in the manner of the animals they call mufros in Italy, and they walk in large herds of five or six thousand of them together more or less; the Indians of that land call this animal taruco. Seen from the front, they look like deer without horns, but from afar they are very different, because they smell bad in the wild, and their snout is almost like that of a pig, which is why those who have considered them with more attention call them puercos cervales or deer pigs.

[1] This species of deer is most likely (Cervus antisensis/Hippocamelus antisensis), or North Andean deer, a species of deer once abundant in Peru and northern Chile. It is a horned species and we note Oviedo’s mention of the lack of horns. [Editor’s note. English edition]

[2] The mouflon (Ovis orientalis orientalis) is a subspecies of wild sheep, considered the ancestor of all domestic sheep breeds. [Editor’s note. English edition]

Image: Sketch of two deer grazing on the mountainside from the Codex Coyoacán in Santa Maria Tetelpan, Mexico dated to around 1700, retrieved from the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University.