A southern pudú deer was born at New York City's Queens Zoo, the facility announced Monday, becoming one of the smallest new residents in the city's largest borough.
The world's smallest deer, southern pudú's will grow to a max weight of just 20 pounds and reach
a shoulder height of between 12 to 14 inches, zoo officials tell the New York Daily News.
The doe, which was born on May 3 and weighed just a pound at birth, has still yet to be named.
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"She’s adjusting really well," Barbara Russo, a spokeswoman for the Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the zoo, told the Daily News. "She’s very cute and still nursing. She will eventually transition to solid foods."
The young pudú deer is on display with her mother, Josephine, and father, Hamilton, the Daily News notes.
There are two species of pudú deer found in Latin America, with northern pudú coming from regions shared by Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, while southern pudú stem from from southern Chile and southwestern Argentina.
According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), both species of pudú deer are classified as vulnerable due to "an ongoing decline and past population reduction of greater than 30 percent over the last 12 years."
According to the IUCN, the decline in the pudú population is due to habitat reduction and "persecution [from] domestic and hunting dogs."
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