Something to Fawn Over! Woodland Park Zoo Have A Baby Pudu!

The Woodland Park Zoo have welcomed the birth of a tiny southern pudu. Pudu come from South America and are recognized as the world’s smallest species of deer.

Keepers were excited to welcome the new arrival on May 5th. The parents are known as Ted and Maggie. This is the fourth fawn for the pair since they were paired as part of the species survival plan (SSP). The SSP is a cooperative breeding program across accredited zoos to help ensure a healthy, self-sustaining population of the species.

Seven year old Ted has lived in Seattle since 2017 while six year old Maggie came to the Woodland Park Zoo during 2018. Their previous three fawns were all males with this being their first female fawn. All three previous fawns now live in accredited zoos across North America.

“We are very excited to have the first female pudu birth at the zoo since 2010. The fawn is healthy and continues to get more comfortable exploring the habitat,” said Shawn Pedersen, an animal curator at Woodland Park Zoo. The pudus live in the zoo’s Temperate Forest habitat.

Pudu are threatened in the wild as a result of habitat loss and other human activities resulting from a growing human population in this area.