A tiny creature that looks part-deer, part-mouse hadn’t been seen in nearly 30 years. Now, with a series of camera traps, researchers have caught the silver-backed chevrotain, also called the Vietnam mouse-deer, meandering about its tree-filled home.
With the distinguishing silver line down its back that starts just behind its shoulders, the silver-backed chevrotain (Tragulus versicolor) looks a bit like a deer, but it’s the size of a large house cat.
The species is thought to be endemic to Vietnam and was first described in the early 20th century and again in 1990. Since then, the silver-backed chevrotain had been “missing.”
The rabbit-sized animal is not a deer or a mouse, despite its nickname, but is the world’s smallest hoofed mammal. (Live Science)
