CNN
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Fifties’ baby star Gayla Peevy’s plea for a “hippopotamus for Christmas” got here true for one Virginia zoo.
The Metro Richmond Zoo welcomed the start of a pygmy hippopotamus in time for Christmas, according to a December 22 news release from the zoo.
The lovable new child was born on December 6, says the discharge. The yet-unnamed child was born to oldsters Iris and Corwin after a 7-month being pregnant.
The infant is the second pygmy hippo born ever in Virginia, in line with the zoo. And he or she’s rising quickly. She weighed in at 16 kilos at start, and per week later was already 24.2 kilos. As an grownup, she may weigh as much as 600 kilos.
The zoo described Iris as “an skilled mom and really caring of her child.” Mom and child are presently in a personal “tremendous cozy, hay-bedded enclosure.” However quickly visitors will be capable to spot the brand new addition when the pair transfer into the indoor pool space, says the zoo.
Pygmy hippos are categorized as endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. There are lower than 2,500 grownup pygmy hippos left within the wild in Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone.
