Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Watch out Moo Deng, there’s a new chick behemoth in town. The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia announced the arrival of a healthy-looking female calf that was born earlier this month.
According to a study, the hippopotamus calf was born on December 9 to parents Iris and Corwin after a seven-month pregnancy. zoo statement. The unnamed baby is the parents’ third calf in less than five years and the second to appear just before the holidays. A successful birth is an especially important event, because hippopotamus chicks are one endangered species in the wild.
pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis) is one of the two remaining living species of hippopotamus in the world, the other being the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibian). As the name suggests, pygmies are hippos very small than its cousins. Adult pygmy hippos can weigh between 400 and 600 pounds compared to adult regular hippos. weigh at least 3,000 pounds (male common hippos can weigh three times as much).
He said that hippopotamus chicks are big from the start. Five days after birth, the Metro Richmond Zoo calf weighed 15 pounds, or about twice the weight of an average human newborn. So far everything is going smoothly as the baby is nursing and growing fast.
Given the public’s recent outrage against zoo animals, from Pesto the penguin to Kirby, the Houston Zoo’s bug-eyed elephant calf, the hippo’s arrival could bring attention to the zoo.
The Metro Richmond calf is one of several baby hippo calves to make headlines this year. nameless calf At the Attica Zoological Park in Athens and Edinburgh Zoo Haggis. Moo Deng, the most famous hippo calf of the day, became an internet sensation almost overnight and his fair share Insulting, object-throwing fans at home zoo in Thailand.
“Most people don’t get hippos for Christmas at all, so we feel blessed to have received two over the years,” the zoo said. statement announces his birth.
Iris and “New Deng” (trademark pending) have been moved to an enclosure filled with special grass for now, which will allow them to bond properly, zoo officials said. Eventually, the calf will move into the zoo’s outdoor indoor pool exhibit, where it will delight fans eager for more baby hippo content.
Pygmy hippos are less aggressive than their regular cousins, which are known to kill hundreds of people every year in the wild, so there is little concern about the baby hippo causing rampant carnage.
Unlike regular hippos, which live in herds, pygmy hippos usually live alone or sometimes in pairs. Once the newborn calf is fully grown, the zoo plans to move it to another park or sanctuary where it can mate with a future mate and have children of its own as part of ongoing conservation efforts.
Both types of hippos face off population problems In some parts of Africa they call them home. But dwarf hippos are in a more dire situation; About 2,500 pygmy hippos still exists in the wild, compared to more than 120,000 common hippos. As memorable as this latest calf may be, its arrival is crucial to ensuring the species’ long-term survival.
Meanwhile, the Metro Richmond Zoo is already busy with PR for its hippo star. Earlier today, the zoo announced a public request to choose a new name for the calf from four available options: Poppy, Juniper, Hammie Mae and Omi. You can view (and vote) in the poll, which closes on December 31st here.
