Rare Baby Pygmy Hippo Makes Debut at Greek Zoo

Storyful

An Athens zoo announced the birth of an endangered pygmy hippo in a Facebook post published on March 20.

Attica Zoological Park said, “We are very excited about the first baby of 2024 born in our park.” The baby hippo was born to pygmy hippos Jamal and Lizzy, the zoo said.

The zoo said pygmy hippos are endangered in the wild.

“Every birth of them in the Zoological Parks is very important for the preservation of the species,” the zoo said.

The pygmy hippo is native to West Africa where “no more than 3,000 pygmy hippos remain in the wild today,” according to Fauna and Flora International. Credit: Attica Zoological Park via Storyful

Video transcript

[MUSIC PLAYING]

- I think she's pregnant.

[HEART BEATING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

We have learn her mom, Lizzy, some training. So in order for us to check her belly, to check her breasts to see if she was giving any milk for the baby. And to do ultrasounds with the [INAUDIBLE].

We trained her to come alignment with the signs here so we can touch her belly. We can check a little bit behind. We can check for breasts, which now they're quite sensitive.

So we also do aftercare with the baby. We weigh it every week to see how many kilos it is gaining. Every week, he's gaining a good amount of kilos, which in the first week, he was 7 kilos. And this week, today, he's 17 and 1/2, so he's growing very fast.

We give him also weekly baths, which are helping their skin because their skin is very sensitive. So in order for that, we do some aftercare.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

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