Watch out Moo Deng, there’s a new baby pygmy hippo in town. The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia just announced the arrival of a healthy-looking female calf born earlier this month.
The hippo calf was born December 9 to parents Iris and Corwin following a seven-month gestation, according to a zoo statement. The unnamed baby is the parents’ third calf in less than five years, and the second to show up right before the holidays. The successful birth is an especially important event because pygmy hippos are an endangered species in the wild.
Pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis) are one of two living hippo species remaining in the world, the other being the common hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius). As their name implies, pygmy hippos are much smaller than their cousins. Adult pygmy hippos may weigh only between 400 and 600 pounds, compared to adult common hippos that weigh at least 3,000 pounds (male common hippos can weigh up to three times more).
That said, pygmy hippos are still hefty—even from the very start. The Metro Richmond Zoo’s calf weighed 15 pounds five days after her birth—or about twice as heavy as a typical human newborn. So far, everything seems to be going smoothly, as the baby is nursing and growing quick.
The hippo’s arrival could bring a flurry of attention to the zoo, given the public’s recent frenzy over baby zoo animals, from Pesto the penguin to Kirby, the Houston Zoo’s bug-eyed elephant calf.
The Metro Richmond calf is one of several pygmy hippo calves to make headlines this year, alongside an unnamed calf at Athens’ Attica Zoological Park and the Edinburgh Zoo’s Haggis. The most famous hippo calf of the day, Moo Deng, became an internet sensation practically overnight and has faced her fair share of abusive, object-throwing fans at her home zoo in Thailand.
“Most people don’t get a hippopotamus for Christmas at all, so we feel lucky to have received two over the years,” the zoo said in its statement announcing the birth.
Iris and “New Deng” (trademark pending) have been relocated to a private hay-filled enclosure for the time being, which will allow them to properly bond, zoo officials said. Eventually, the calf will move into the zoo’s publicly viewable indoor pool exhibit, where it will probably endear itself to adoring fans eager for more baby hippo content.
Iris and her newborn, yet-to-be-named calf. Photo: Metro Richmond ZooPygmy hippos are much less aggressive than their common cousins, which are known to kill hundreds of humans annually in the wild, so there’s little concern of the baby hippo causing uncontrollable carnage.
Unlike common hippos, which live in herds, pygmy hippos normally live alone or sometimes in pairs as adults. Once the newborn calf is fully grown, the zoo plans to move her to another park or sanctuary where she can pair with a prospective mate and hopefully have her own children as part of ongoing conservation efforts.
Both hippo species are facing population troubles in the parts of Africa they call home. But the pygmy hippos’ situation is far graver; An estimated 2,500 pygmy hippos still exist in the wild, compared to over 120,000 common hippos. So as meme-able as this latest calf may become, her arrival is also vital to ensuring the long-term survivability of the species.
In the meantime, the Metro Richmond Zoo is already hard at work running PR for its hippo star. Just today, the zoo announced a public poll to decide the calf’s new name from four available options: Poppy, Juniper, Hammie Mae, and Omi. The poll, which will close on December 31, can be viewed (and voted on) here.
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