A female pygmy hippopotamus delivered a healthy calf on December 9 at the
Metro Richmond Zoo
, Virginia. It is the third baby hippo born in the last 5 years on the zoo premises. The hippopotamus named Iris gave birth to the pygmy after a 7-month gestation and the calf also underwent a neonatal exam and weighed 15 pounds.
Iris is the mother and Corwin is the father. It's the zoo's third hippo birth in five years, and the third for the parents.
The zoo officials in a press release said, "Most people don’t get a hippopotamus for Christmas at all, so we feel lucky to have received two over the years."
The pygmy hippos are an endangered West African species and the officials noted that they are different from the regular hippos as they don't live in groups and only live in pairs or solo. The zoo also explained that for this reason, the two previous calves of Iris after growing up were moved to other zoological facilities to live with future mates and continue contributing to the conservation of their species.
In their press note, they also mentioned that the baby pygmy is very attached to its mother and that it has started moving in the water. Iris and the calf are now living in an enclosure off-exhibit as it gives the calf and the new mother some privacy and they will be reunited with Corwin soon.
The calf is yet to be named and the zoo officials on their website posted that they have narrowed it down to 4 options - Poppy (a flower), Juniper (an evergreen shrub to remember winter), Hammie Mae (a sweet and southern tie to Virginia ham) or Omi (means “water” in Yoruba, a language spoken in West Africa).
You can vote for the names!
The hype around the pygmy (baby hippos) has been high recently. Before this, in July, the Kao Kheow Open Zoo announced that they welcomed their youngest calf
Moo Deng
which went viral on social media. The Moo Deng enjoyed baths, resting in water and it eyen playfully yelled at zoo keepers and these videos got millions of view on social media. Now, after Moo Deng, netizens are now excited fot the new pygmy from the Metro Richmond Zoo, Virginia.
English (US) ·