A baby pygmy hippos was born on August 20, 2024, at the Cerza zoo, in Calvados. Excellent news for this endangered species and for animal rights activists.
New hope for baby pygmy hippos. The birth of a little hippopotamus brightened up the end of summer 2024, for the Cerza zoo in Normandy but especially for defenders of the animal cause. As a reminder, the pachyderm is classified as endangered in the IUCN red list.
The birth of a baby pygmy hippos, a rare phenomenon
Pink notebook for the Cerza zoo in Calvados. The animal park near Hermival-les-Vaux, announced the news on its social network Facebook on Saturday August 30, 2024. Indeed, after eight months of gestation, the zoo announced that “ Nyandé, our female baby pygmy hippos, gave birth to a little hippopotamus ”, specifying that the mother and the calf are doing well but that they need calm.
The park has warned future visitors, “they are not yet visible in the exterior enclosure, but you can see them from the window of the hippopotamus house” according to the media 20minutes.
For the moment, no name has been given to him, Houssaye, the zoo’s conservation manager explained to local media Ouest-France “ we do not yet know if he will be found internally or if we will submit him to the vote ”.
The park did not provide any further information about the animal, other than its weight of 9.20 kg.
The appearance of pygmy hippos What is a pygmy hippopotamus?
Dwarf or pygmy hippos , or their scientific name Hexaprotodon liberiensis , measure on average 150 to 170 cm long and 80 cm high. The Cerza Zoo recalled that a baby pygmy hippos gains on average between 30 and 50 g per day and that as adults they weigh around 270 kg.
There are two species of hippopotamus, the amphibious hippopotamus (or common hippopotamus) and the baby pygmy hippos. It is rather easy to distinguish them thanks to their size.
In fact, the baby pygmy hippos is almost half the size of the common hippopotamus and weighs a quarter of its weight.
The baby pygmy hippos generally lives in forests but also in marshy mud, as recalled.
The latter is solitary and only meets people during the breeding season. Herbivorous, it feeds mainly on leaves and fruits.
A unique character to hippos: the skin of hippos produces a pink, red colored substance. The latter has long been called “blood sweat”, but it is in fact a material with hydrating antiseptic properties which acts as a sunscreen according to the specialized site Threatened Species.
The pygmy hippopotamus, an endangered species
This birth is good news for the zoo and pachyderm lovers but especially for the species in particular when we know that it is an endangered species. It is threatened for the ivory of its canines but still less than its cousin the common hippopotamus, because they have less commercial value.
According to a 2015 IUCN report, there are fewer than 2,500 individuals left in the world, due to logging. The majority of baby pygmy hippos are found in protected areas.
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