A fawn of the world's tiniest species of deer, the pudu deer, was born May 3 at a zoo in Queens, NYC weighing just one pound, and now the Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo has announced its debut to the world, International Science Times reports.
The pudu deer will grow to be just about 20 pounds and 12 to 14 inches at the shoulder, zoo officials say. When fully grown, she will stand at just a foot tall. Pudu deers are found in South America, along the Andes mountain range of southern Chile and southwestern Argentina, and are excellent at sprinting, jumping, climbing and making a zig-zag to dodge predators.
The baby pudu deer will share an enclosure with her father, Hamilton, and mother, Josephine, though she currently does not yet have a name.
"She's adjusting really well," Wildlife Conservation Society spokesperson Barbara Russo told the New York Daily News. "She's very cute and still nursing. She will eventually transition to solid foods." Russo runs the Queens Zoo, located at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in NYC.
The pudu deer is classified as "endangered" under the IUCN Red List due to a combination of overhunting and deforestation, and are dangerously approaching extinction. An international captive breeding program for the southern pudu deer led by Concepcion University in Chile has begun in an effort to preserve the species.
Click here to see a photo of the new baby pudu beer. Warning: extreme cuteness!
