Scarlett, the Mouse Deer

There is a crafty trickster hiding in the shrubs of the at the Prospect Park Zoo.  If you’re lucky, you will see her tip toe through the exhibit while her noisy bird neighbors jump, hop, and fly around above.

Animals are common to folklore around the world. Pacific Northwest Native American folktales have crows, African mythology speaks of Anansi the spider, and European fairytales often feature the fox as tricksters in their folk stories.  Oceanic mythology, especially Indonesia, features the tiny mouse deer as a playful scheming character. Scarlett, the Prospect Park Zoo’s mouse deer does not play any real tricks, but according to Indonesian folklore, the mouse deer is infamous for playing pranks on its exotic jungle neighbors – including elephants, tigers, and crocodiles. 

Many people are unfamiliar with this rare creature.  Also known as a Greater Malayan Chevrotain (French for “little goat”), this animal is an ungulate, or hoofed mammal, and, at about 10 pounds and the size of a housecat, is the smallest in the world.  They have a primitive chambered stomach like cows, but actually share more characteristics with pigs.  They have no horns, no tail, they have elongated canine teeth (on the males they look like tiny tusks) and four toes on each foot.  No wonder people are always asking, “What is that?” when they spot her.

Scarlett, who was born at the Bronx Zoo in 1996, spends her time without another mouse deer, but that is not a problem.   In the wild, mouse deer live either in pairs or alone.  She makes her home in a lushly planted Asian exhibit with Oriental pied hornbills, yellow faced mynahs, and crested wood partridges. 

Little research has been done on these secretive animals, but we do know that their population is relatively stable in some of their native habitat.  However, increased logging in these areas continues to present a danger to the mouse deer, along with hunting since these animals are a food source for local populations.

Meanwhile, visitors to the Prospect Park Zoo can marvel at this different little deer if they are lucky enough to see her wander through the plantings or resting under a bromeliad.  Perhaps it is their elusive and secretive nature that has made them the star of Indonesian trickster tales.