The Metro Richmond Zoo welcomes a healthy baby pygmy hippo, highlighting the importance of conservation for this threatened species.
The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia just announced the arrival of a healthy-looking female pygmy hippo calf born earlier this month. The unnamed baby is the parents’ third calf in less than five years, and the second to show up right before the holidays. This successful birth is an especially important event because pygmy hippo s are threatened. Adult pygmy hippo s may weigh only between 400 and 600 pounds, compared to adult common hippos that weigh up to 3,000 pounds.
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 quickly. The hippo’s arrival could bring a flurry of attention to the zoo, given the public’s recent frenzy over baby zoo animals. The parents, 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. 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 in the parts of Africa they call home. But the pygmy hippos’ situation is far graver; An estimated 2,500 pygmy hippos in the wild, compared to over 120,000 common hippos
Pygmy Hippo Zoo Birth Conservation Rare Species
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