Watch out, Moo Deng. A new baby hippo has made her holiday debut and is soaking up the social media spotlight.
The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia has welcomed a baby pygmy hippopotamus, born on December 9. According to a news release, the unnamed baby pygmy weighed approximately 15 pounds five days after birth.
The baby pygmy was born to Metro Richmond Zoo’s hippos Iris and Corwin, marking the hippos’ third calf in four and a half years, according to a news release. This is the second time Iris and Corwin have had a baby around the holidays.
According to a news release, the baby pygmy’s birth was unique because Iris had never given birth in water before. Although the majority of hippos give birth in water, pygmy hippos can also give birth on land.
Iris gave birth in the hippo enclosure’s indoor pool. Keepers and a few guests were there to witness the birth. The baby’s natural instincts, according to a news release, were to kick and swim around the water.
Following the birth, Iris and the baby were placed in a hay-bedded enclosure outside the zoo’s exhibit to bond. They will return to the exhibit soon.
What’s with the hippo hype?
The excitement surrounding the new pygmy comes after Moo Deng, a pygmy hippo born in July at Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo, received a lot of attention.
Moo Deng’s videos and photos of yelling at her zoo keepers, taking baths, and resting in water buckets have received millions of views on social media.
In November, Moo Deng even cast her “vote” for President-elect Donald Trump in the United States’ 2024 presidential election. When given two fruit baskets, one with Kamala Harris’ name and the other with Trump’s name, Moo Deng nibbled and crunched on the Trump cake.
Only a few months after Moo Deng’s birth, a female pygmy calf named Haggis rose to social media prominence. Haggis, born in October, lives at the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo.
Pygmy hippos, thought to be the common hippo’s smaller cousin, have been declared endangered since 2016. They are approximately half the size of common hippos and weigh less than one-fourth of an adult common hippo. Pygmies are native to West Africa and have an average life expectancy of 27 years.
