The hippo was born on Wednesday night. “This new calf weighs at least twice Fiona’s weight and is already walking,” said Christina Gorsuch, director of animal care at the Cincinnati Zoo. Staff discovered the calf’s mother, 23-year-old Bibi, was pregnant around April Fool’s Day. It was a surprise because Bibi was on birth control. “Bibi and the baby, who has yet to be named, will spend the next two weeks bonding behind the scenes,” Gorsuch said. “A female would take her newborn away from the brooder for that amount of time in the wild, and we’re trying to give Bibi the option to do what feels natural to her.” Bibi’s first baby, Fiona, weighed just 29lb (13kg) when she was born six weeks premature and could not stand on her own. Fiona now weighs 2,000 pounds (90 kg), the zoo said. The zoo saw an increase in visitors and views on social media following Fiona’s birth. Some animal rights groups criticized her for trading a captive animal. The Guardian made Fiona one of the “10 truly wonderful things the internet gave us in 2017, featuring baby hippos”. “Fiona is a bona fide phenomenon,” he said.
