Baby animals of all kinds are pretty cute, but this one might beat them all: a pygmy hippo was just born at the Toronto Zoo! The tiny and adorable hippo calf made her shiny, spotlight-stealing debut on Sunday morning.
Born to 20-year-old mom Kindia and 31-year-old dad Harvey, the yet-to-be-named baby hippo came into the world after 1.5 hours of active labour and was already attempting to stand just 15 minutes after birth! She also started nursing just 4.5 hours after birth and seems to be doing well, resting together with her mom behind the scenes in the Little Hippo Hollow (which isn’t accessible to zoo guests).
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While there’s cause for celebration any time any baby animal is born at the zoo, this is an especially exciting one: pygmy hippos are endangered, with just 2,000 to 3,000 individuals estimated to be left in the wild. Hunting pressure and habitat loss due to logging, mining, agriculture and human settlement have majorly affected remaining wild populations.
While the zoo says calf survival for this species can be challenging, this is Kindia’s third calf, and she has proven herself to be an attentive mother. In 2018, she raised her daughter Penelope, who has since left home for a suitor at the John Ball Zoo in Michigan to start a family of her own. So far, Kindia been diligent in protecting her newborn beneath her.
Unnamed baby hippo joins the ranks of recent babies to join the Toronto Zoo family, including little Imara, a giraffe who was born back in February of this year.
While Kindia’s baby won’t be viewable to guests for a while as she bonds with her mom and goes through this critical stage of development, if all goes well, Toronto Zoo visitors will eventually be able to say hi to her in person.