Posted on 01/14/2026 7:14:14 AM PST by Twotone
A fearless muntjac deer weighing just 50 pounds went head-to-head with a nearly two-ton rhinoceros at a zoo in Poland in a caught-on-camera David and Goliath bout for the ages.
A caretaker at Wroclaw Zoo in Poland captured the standoff between Maruska the rhino and Mundzak the Chinese muntjac deer in a video viewed millions of times on social media.
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
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Little deer is ‘floating like a butterfly’.
Saw this on the local news the other night. I thought it was hilarious to see the rhino hopping around, playing.
I’d say they were playing and having a high ole time!
These videos of animals are cute but so many of them are generated by AI anymore that you don’t know which ones are real.
We dont know what the deer was thinking but we know from the dancing that the rhino was playing with the deer. Mammals require interaction and play. This is why when polar bears show up near sled dogs there are often stories of the two playing. There are some videos that show the same dance and if one watches closely dogs will often do that dance with their people.
I think the deer was wise to break that off before the rhino got seriously agitated.
That’’s what I thought when I saw it last night.
One of our cats stalks deer in the backyard. He will go head-to-head with any of them.
It looks like they were playing. The deer was much quicker, and rhinos have notoriously bad eyesight.
Just playing. I’m sure they get bored to tears in a zoo environment.
Totally misleading. They were playing together.
Rhino’s got some pretty good wheels!
Even though the rhino is horsing around, I’m sure the earth shook and thundered with every prance.
I read that little Buck’s female companion (Doe) is now in heat, so this deer’s testosterone was ‘off the charts’ for the time being.
When fueled by testosterone, more confrontational and aggressive behavior is often seen.
Like a Hollywood movie where the 120 pound female always knocks out a gang of ripped assassins
Tiny dogs and cats have the same effect, the latter a bit less, tho.
Bigger animals either see it as playing or see a real risk of some needle sharped toothie thing rearing up under them and snagging onto a vital, vulnerable organ. I saw this latter scenario when our Pomeranian chased a 50# Spitz and showed how a Spitz can fly upwards several feet from a standing start. It was amazing.
Rhinos also have a poor sense of humor, according to a "Far Side" cartoon which showed a stand-up comedian at a podium in front of a rhinoceros.
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