Deer Spirit of Aymara
In Aymara and Andean tradition the taruka, the Andean deer (Hippocamelus antisensis), is a sacred wild (sallqa) animal whose non-human 'owners' are the mountain spirits (mallku, apu), for whom deer are herds, in places called the cows of the ancestors. Ritual hunting requires offerings to that owner and forbids taking breeding males; the deer also appears as the celestial topa taruka.