Malay Menagerie: Mouse Deer

Ah yes, the tender-footed, delicate, and agile mouse deer. An animal loved and admired by all Malaysians, and now also, by me. Above is a statue bearing a moderate likeness to the tiny and adorable creatures we were first introduced to on the Taiping night zoo safari.

(Small tangent about the night zoo: The only snack options for consumption on the safari were corn- sweet popped kettle corn and warm corn nibblets coated in salt and butter. A little surprised at the limited options, but certainly lovers of corn, we opted for both:
 
Both were surprisingly snackable in their own ways, but I digress…)

Looking very much like the name would imply, a mouse deer is about the size of a large guinea pig with four toothpick thin, but very strong legs.

Unfortunately, due to heavy deforestation, the little guys are running out of places to live. Thankfully the Malays have collected several of them and placed them in the Mouse Deer and Deer park near the lake gardens in Kuala Lumpur. In his safe environment:

Our hope is that Pixar will capitalize on their undeniable cuteness and make them the focus of a future feature film. But until then, we’ll have to make do with visiting them in captivity in zoos across Malaysia.