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The smallest deer in the world
One can believe that this little fur animal is a representative of the majestic deer. But that’s the way it is. It is actually a pudu. To be more precise, a very young pudu. Even fully grown, the small antlers are only about half the size of our native deer. So they are the smallest deer in the world. They come from South America: the northern pudus live in the Andes and the southern pudus in Patagonia. The southern pudus are even a bit smaller. Representatives of the southern pudu live in Cologne Zoo. The forest animals are mostly active at night and like to eat leaves, bark, fruits, flowers and young tree shoots. The spokesman for the Cologne Zoo, Christoph Schütt, has even more information: “In terms of their entire biology, they are deer. That is independent of body size. In terms of their organism, their natural behavior and their ancestry, they are related to ours Central European deer, but have simply looked for an ecological niche where body size is advantageous. ” The joy in Cologne was great when a little pudu was born here six weeks ago. It bears the Spanish name “Dulce”, which means something like “sweet”. And that it more than lives up to its name is probably beyond dispute. The lively young animal is already carefully exploring the outdoor area. Incidentally, the birth of a pudu is not uncommon in Cologne Zoo and occurs regularly.
The pudus have had offspring in Cologne Zoo.