Here's a cute, tiny animal to help you feel better. It's a chevrotain. What's a chevrotain, you ask? It's the smallest hoofed animal in the world—the smallest species weighs about four pounds, and the largest, about 33. It also happens to have adorable itty-bitty fangs.
Treehugger describes this adorable tiny fanged creature:
The mouse deer. Or the pig deer. Or the little goat. Whatever you call the chevrotain, this is a truly distinct (and tiny!) ungulate. With a round, bunny-like body placed atop piglet-like feet, and a face akin to a mouse, the chevrotain may look like a hodgepodge of modern-day species but it's actually quite ancient.
The family to which chevrotains belong dates back 34 million years, and hasn't changed much; the animals continue to thrive in their forested habitats. Ten species still survive today in south and southeast Asia, and central and west Africa—and all of them are amazingly small.
One species—the silver-backed chevrotain, which many scientists had believed might be extinct, was spotted in Vietnam in 2019, after a 30 year hiatus. While some species have gone extinct, ten still remain (and remain cuter than ever, after 34 million years!).
If you want to learn more about these critters and see them in action, watch this six-minute video from Animalogic. Enjoy!
