Pygmy hippo born at America’s Metro Richmond Zoo

The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia, America, is celebrating the birth of a baby Pygmy Hippo.

Born on 6 December 2022, the Pygmy Hippopotamus does not yet have a name. Its parents are Iris and Corwin. Iris was pregnant for 7 months before giving birth to her daughter.

She weighed 7 kilograms (16 pounds) and is growing rapidly. After a week, she was already 11 kilograms (24 pounds). When she is an adult, she will weigh up to 272 kilograms (600 pounds).

She is only the second Pygmy Hippopotamus calf to be born in Virginia. The Pygmy Hippopotamus is an endangered species, with less than 2,500 adult pygmy hippos in the wild. It is from the dense forests and swamps of west African countries, such as Ivory Coast, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.

Mother Iris had no complications and both mother and daughter are healthy. They are in a private enclosure until the baby is old enough to be shown to the public. They will soon be moved to an enclosure with an indoor pool. They are semi-aquatic, so they need water to keep their skin moist.

The Pygmy Hippopotamus is about half the size of the Common Hippopotamus. As an adult, it measures about 75-100 centimetres (29-39 inches) tall and 150-175 centimetres (59-69 inches) in length.

Photographs: Photos are from the Metro Richmond Zoo & CNN website

MARTINA NICOLLS

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MARTINA NICOLLS is an international human rights-based consultant in education, healing and wellbeing, peace and stabilization, foreign aid audits and evaluations, and the author of: The Paris Residences of James Joyce (2020), Similar But Different in the Animal Kingdom (2017), The Shortness of Life: A Mongolian Lament (2015), Liberia’s Deadest Ends (2012), Bardot’s Comet (2011), Kashmir on a Knife-Edge (2010) and The Sudan Curse (2009).

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