@Nycprodigy:
So there are awakened Zoans(waiting for Chopper to Zerk out again)
Actually, I am fairly certain Chopper has always been "awakened."
Here is my reasoning (TL;DR at bottom):
Awakened Zoans, as we see from Impel Down and from the wiki, are zoans who's default mode/personality more closely matches their fruit than their original species. So, a human that eats the cow cow fruit would be more like a human than a cow in her default mode - we have even see that most zoans' default mode is just a regular human. But, an awakened cow cow fruit user would have a default mode appearing more similar to a cow, and would have a personality more closely related to a cow - they might be kinda dumb, prone to be scared, like foods that resemble grasses, etc.
The awakened zoans at impel down were somewhat like this - I'm not sure if they ever even used human language, and they were somewhat savage, like animals, rather than humans who ate zoan fruits.
So, I am working on the assumption that awakened zoans have a default form and personality more closely resembling their fruit's animal than their original species.
Chopper is exactly like that. You might expect awakened Chopper to be more reindeer like, because reindeer are "animals," but this isn't right; Remember his original species is a reindeer. He ate the person person (human human) fruit, and so as an awakened zoan he would more closely resemble a human than his original species (a reindeer).
Awakened zoans resemble their fruit's animal more than they resemble their original species and Chopper does resemble a human more than he resembles a reindeer. He walks on two legs, he speaks human (demon guards at impel down, I believe, never spoke, because their animals do not speak), he has many human personality traits such as human emotions, liking to be complimented, he uses his hands like a human does, and most importantly, his personality and default form have the defining features of human beings: Human intelligence and empathy. He is, primarily, a doctor, not a deer. He wants to help others, and he does so by pursuing an intellectual endeavor: becoming a great doctor. (His intellect is also linked to his use of language). He is basically a person who has various deer/hybrid transformations.
If Chopper were not awakened, his default mode would be a reindeer, he would have some personality traits of a human but they would not overpower his reindeer ones. Instead, the awakened status of Chopper alters this, so his default mode and personality are distinctively human rather than reindeer.
Possible supplement: His transformations are based on his studies and originally on technology - rumbleballs. Technology and study are human characteristics, and these are defining characteristics of Chopper, not just little extras aside from his ordinary everyday going abouts as a reindeer; Chopper lives and develops as a human.
Possible Objection: One Piece animals have rationality/intellect(/technology?).
Response: True, some animals in One Piece are intelligent, rational, etc. I would say they are not these things to the extent of one piece humans. But even if they were, here is the rub: Humans have been traditionally distinguished from other animals (philosophically, biologically, sociologically, psychologically, sometimes metaphysically, etc.) by their intellect. Even if this is not as sharp a distinction from other animals as we might pretend it is - even if there is a sliding scale of these traits that allow for animals to be on the rubric as well - and even if this is entirely the wrong way to distinguish humans from non-human animals, this is in fact the traditional and pervasive way that human beings have defined themselves for at least thousands of years. Most importantly, this is how humans think of themselves when distinguishing themselves from animals. Even if animals in one piece are all rational or intelligent or what have you, this conception of humanity would still very plausibly make its way into the One Piece definition of human beings, as very few other notions of humanity have ever been entertained during our species' existence.
TL;DR: I firmly believe that Chopper is an awakened zoan because his default form and personality more closely resemble a human being than a reindeer, and all we know about awakened zoans thus far is that their default mode and personality more closely resemble their fruit's animal than their original species.