Baby mouse deer with ‘world’s smallest hooves’ born at UK zoo

An adorable mouse deer who has the ‘world’s smallest hooves’ has been born at Bristol Zoo.

The tiny Malayan chevrotain, which resembles a rodent-sized bambi, was named Otis.

Measuring just 20cm tall, Otis is the height of a pencil. He also tips the scales at 430 grams, the weight of a small loaf of bread.

Otis was born to mum Brienne and dad Jorah four weeks ago but the little guy has just been seen.

Zoo spokesman Al Toyne said: ‘For the first few weeks his mother kept him hidden and he remained quite stationary in the undergrowth.

‘But now he is moving around a lot on his own. He is quite active and confident and has started eating solids.

‘This does represent a great success and because his mother has had just two infants, she is very important for the conservation breeding programme as her genes are rare.’

Otis will crucially help sustain the captive population of mouse deer whose numbers in the wild are in sharp decline.

He’s just the third of its kind to have been born at the zoo in the last decade as part of a breeding programme.

Mouse deer are distantly related to their bigger deer cousins and feed on flowers and vegetable matter, roaming the forests of Java, their native island in south-east Asia.

They are hunted for their meat and captured as wild pets. Their current numbers are not known but they would probably be classed as vulnerable if thoroughly surveyed.