Pudu Deer: Baby Deer Weighing 1 Pound Born in New York City (PHOTO, VIDEO)
New York City has just welcomed one of its newest residents, a tiny baby deer.
While it takes most mothers a few days at most to announce a new baby, it took the Queens Zoo in New York two months to announce their newest addition. Born May 3, a brand new baby girl pudu was welcomed by her parents Josephine and Hamilton.
Even with two months to decide though, the zoo has yet to give the baby pudu a name. She was born weighing just one pound according to zoo officials and is now in good health.
"She's adjusting really well," Barbara Russo, a spokeswoman for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoo, located at Flushing Meadows Corona Park, told the Daily News. "She's very cute and still nursing. She will eventually transition to solid foods."
Pudus are known as the world's smallest deer. Full grown, they usually 13 to 17 inches tall and 33 inches long, or about as large as a medium sized dog. Two species of the South American deer fall under the name pudu. The northern pudu come from Columbia, Ecuador, and Peru. Southern pudu come from Chili and southwestern Argentina.
Outside of mating, pudu are not considered to be social animals. Due to hunting and habitat loss, the miniature deer are considered to be an endangered species.
A second baby pudu was born in May at the Detroit Zoo. The baby pudu also come with a warning for being dangerously cute.
"I am now on cuteness overload," one user wrote on a Huffington Post blog.
"I'm melting, I'm melting," another said.