A baby pygmy hippo was shown at Taronga Zoo in Sydney. This miracle fascinated everyone around! The zoo director, by the way, compares these hippos with «watermelons on tiny little legs.»
A pygmy or Liberian hippos are mammals that live in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Ivory Coast. They reach 80 cm in height at the shoulders, 177 cm in length, and weigh 180-275 kg. Taronga Zoo in Sydney, Australia, showed a baby pygmy hippo that was born recently.
The baby was born to a mom named Kambiri and a dad named Fergus. He became the first cub in the zoo in four years. According to the keepers, this event is an important stage in efforts to preserve endangered West African species. There are less than 3,000 pygmy hippos left in the wild. Therefore, every birth in the zoo is extremely valuable, and helps to maintain the population.
The baby spent two weeks in a closed aviary, learning to walk and swim under the watchful supervision of his mother. He hasn’t been given a name yet. But soon it will be chosen together with the zoo visitors. Zoo director Simon Duffy says the baby pygmy hippos «look like little watermelons on tiny little legs.»
