Meet Gustavo, The Baby Pudu Who Has The Internet 'Overwhelmed By Its Cuteness'

There's a lot that goes into welcoming an animal into your space for the first time. Your first week with your new cat or dog, for example, can be full of surprises, from developing their daily routine to watching them discover their favorite relaxing spots around the house. Now, just imagine all those firsts at a zoo! The Nashville Zoo has welcomed its very own baby pudu, named Gustavo, in an adorable TikTok. This cutie's warm welcome has been viewed over 50,000 times, likely because it's just that cute!

@nashzoo

Our pudu fawn officially has a name... meet Gustavo! 👋 Voted on by our animal care team, Gustavo is a popular name in Argentina, part of the southern pudu's native range and has meanings connected to greatness and royalty. A fitting name for such a tiny king!

♬ original sound – Nashville Zoo – Nashville Zoo

Here's some fun facts about this adorable fawn. He weighed just over 2 pounds at birth! His tininess makes sense, too, because pudus are the smallest deer species in the world. The Nashville Zoo also shared that Gustavo got his name from the animal care team. "Gustavo is a popular name in Argentina, part of the southern pudu's native range and has meanings connected to greatness and royalty."

New Gustavo fans immediately fell in love with the little pudu in the comments. One joked that they'd be leaving with a "suspicious, pudu-fawn-sized lump in their coat," implying their wish of secretly adopting dear Gustavo, while another, overwhelmed by his cuteness, created jewelry in his honor. Seriously, though, it's hard not to adore him!

Here's more about pudus, the South American herbivores that are almost too cute for words. Pudus are tiny deer with two species — southern and northern. Northern pudus are smaller than southern pudus, if you can imagine a deer even littler than Gustavo. They've got the sweetest doe-eyes and short little legs, they average about 8 to 18 pounds, and are only two feet tall.

Pudus aren't fussy about their diet, eating anything from mushrooms and other fungi to vines, nuts, and berries; just as long as it's not meat or fish. They're originally from the rainforests of Argentina and Chile, and those little legs of theirs help them trek through thick vegetation. Pudus are known to be pretty solitary and cautious mammals, wary of predators. Their more social times occur during rutting (or breeding) season, when adult males "joust" with their little antlers to compete for their mates, which may not be as cute as it sounds.

Unfortunately, in a growing list of animals like the Kermode bear (a rare mammal discovered in North America), pudus are also facing new environmental threats. In fact, hunting, human-made habitat destruction, and farming have classified pudus as near-threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature. Births like Gustavo's are part of current conservation efforts, and they help to better educate people on the state of these adorable deer. So, tell your friends about Gustavo, and let them enjoy his adorableness, too!