The latest specimen of the world's tiniest deer - a baby Java mouse deer - one of the smallest hoofed animals in the world has been born in a nature park in southern Spain, conservationists said on Friday.
The baby "deer mouse," a rare species no bigger than a hamster, was born on April 9 in the Fuengirola Biopark near Malaga. According to Agence France-Presse, it became the 43rd living member of the species in Europe.
Due to the deer's tiny dimensions and big eyes, it appears to look like a rodent. Originating in southeastern Asia, it also has tiny hooves.
At birth, the newborn deer baby -- which has not yet been named because it is still too small to determine its sex -- weighed about 100 grams, staff at Bioparc Fuengirola, which is running a program to breed the rare species, told the El Pais newspaper.
But "it is growing very fast", a spokeswoman for the nature park, Asun Portillo, told AFP on Friday.
According to BBC News, adult Java mouse-deer are rarely bigger than rabbits or weigh more than 2.2lb. They are also known to be fiercely intelligent, and the species represents wisdom in many local legends in its native Java, said The Local website.
"It is doing very well, in its enclosure, although it cannot suckle yet and cannot feed by itself," she said.
Since 2007, the baby mouse deer's mother has lived in Fuengirola. Its father was brought over from Lille, France a year ago, the Spanish zoo said.
The family lives in the zoo's Hidden Forest, which recreates the ruins of a temple lost in the Asian jungle, BBC News reported.
The survival of the species is known by scientists as "tragulus javanicus."
Although Europe is currently known to have 43 Java mouse-deer, massive deforestation is threatening the future of the species in South East Asia, Bioparc Fuengirola said.
