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Tiny Deer Faces Down Rhino at Poland's Wroclaw Zoo in Viral Video

Zookeepers attribute the brief standoff to a testosterone surge linked to the deer's mate being in heat.

Overview

  • A caretaker at Wroclaw Zoo filmed a standoff between Mundzak, a Chinese muntjac deer, and Maruska, a black rhinoceros, in their shared outdoor enclosure.
  • The Instagram post from the zoo drew millions of views as the unusual encounter circulated widely on social media.
  • Zookeepers said the behavior stemmed from excess testosterone because the deer's mate was in heat, characterizing the episode as a brief territorial display.
  • The roughly 50-pound deer repeatedly charged the roughly 3,750-pound rhino, and the larger animal eventually retreated in the clip.
  • A follow-up video shows the animals calmly eating hay together, and the zoo says the species have cohabited there for years with separate indoor areas.