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Mini South American deer that weighs as much as a watermelon makes its debut at Queens Zoo

By
Associated Press
Published Aug. 19, 2024, 2:01 p.m. ET

A tiny So🍸uth American deer that will weigh only as much as a watermelon when fully grown 🎃is making its debut at the Queens Zoo in New York City.

The southern pudu fawn weighed just 2 pounds (just under 1 kilo) when it was born June 21, the Wildlife Conservation⛦ Society, which runs New York City’s zoos, said in a news release Thursday. It is expected to weigh 15 to 20 pounds (7 to 9 kilograms) in adulthood.

Newborn southern pudu fawn, one of the smallest deer species in the world, at Wildlife Conservation Society's Queens Zoo in New York, captured June 21, 2024.
The southern pudu fawn weighed just 2 pounds (just under 1 kilo) when it was born June 21. AP
A southern pudu fawn, the world's smallest deer species, walking in its enclosure at the Queens Zoo in New York on May 27, 2015.
Fully grown, the pudu fawn is the weight of a watermelon. AP

The southern pudu, one of the world’s smallest deer species, is listed as near threatened by the International Union✤ for Conservat𝓰ion of Nature. It is native to Chile and Argentina, where its population is decreasing because of factors including development and invasive species.

The Queens Zoo breeds southern pudus in collaboration with other﷽ zoos in ❀an effort to maintain genetically diverse populations, the conservation society said. Eight pudu fawns have been born there since 2005.

The newbo🤡rn fawn will share a Queens Zoo habitat with its parents. There are two more pudus at the conservation society’s Prospect Park Zoo in Brooklyn.