Huemul has suffered major human impact long before the arrival of the earliest explorers who wrote down the first impressions and descriptions.

 

As a result, early writings cannot be taken at face value, but need to be understood in relation to prevailing knowledge at that time:

- rudimentary knowledge about biology and ecology (compared to today)

- absence of knowledge about circumstances prior to the explorer’s visit.

 

There was a long gap of time between initial descriptions and some detailed studies more recently, and thus there is a very short list of published information. It lead unfortunately to the uncritical repetition of early statements which may be erroneous.