The Pudu, Smallest Deer in the World

The Pudu is the smallest deer in the world, similar in appearance to the northern Pudu (Pudu Mephistopheles, but a little smaller. However, the southern Pudu (pudu puda) has a small glossy reddish-brown to dark brown coat with slightly lighter underparts and legs, extremely cute to look at. The deer belonging to the Pudu genus even people have captured them for pets, which is the main reason of declining his population. The Pudu deer have a reddish brown coloring on their bodies and their ears and lips are orange shade; however, southern Pudu fawns are spotted with white or perhaps for camouflage. Their fur is long and coarse which is different from what most deer species offer. The smaller sizes are probably the reasons why people take keen interest in them.  The fully grown deer weight is 26 to 30 pounds and is just over a foot, though males do grow antlers but small body size of this animal they’re only several inches in length. 

The deer normally likes moderate winter and arid warm climate, even live in dense forest and often come out to open areas in search of food. The Pudu deer is very secretive in their movements just to minimize the risk of predators finding them. His natural habitat is known to live solitary life other than breeding the young one. They are habitually leave massive piles of dung though as a way of marking their territory. Pudu’s are most active in morning, late afternoon and evening but do not interact socially, a very frightened animal and barks when in fear and their fur bristles and shivers when angered. The Pudu is very wary animal and moves slowly and stops frequently, smelling the air for scents of predators. However, Pudu is proficient climber, jumper and sprinter and flees in a zigzag path when being pursued. 

Moreover, the Pudu deer has short stature; they like to look in food in their close grounds. The deer is known to be very adaptable to their environment when it comes to feeding.  Normally, they like to eat seasonal fruits, but can feed on leaves and twigs from plants and lower branches of trees. The deer can be able to get up on their hind legs to reach the higher up foods, even some deer can climb on tree go to the distance the food they’re looking for. The Pudu breeding seasons start in fall and takes almost 210 days for the young to be born afterwards. The sexual maturity occurs about six months of age in the females. The female deer only is able to born one fawn due to smaller bodies. The young deer is very small at birth weight just three pounds and takes three months to their full size. The Pudu deer average life span is 8 to 10 years in the wild and the longest recorded lifespan is 15 years and 9 months. 

The Pudu deer are facing a dwindling population due it its small size, which make them common prey for a variety of predators i.e. Wild Cats, Cougars, Eagles, Owls and Fox.  The Pudu deer is extremely popular in zoos as well enticing crowd due to his cuteness. Yes, humans have a great fascination for this small deer and they set out to hunt it, although very few peoples get the chance and success in it idea. Experts are doing their best efforts in order to increase their population and quality of genetics can be maintained. The common public cannot see the Pudu deer in the wild due to its natural hiddenness and low numbers as well. As of, the species are classified as endangered in the IUCN Red List. Source: Charsimaticplanet.com