LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- It's a boy! Now he just needs a name.
The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden is celebrating the birth of a full-term hippopotamus that is a sibling to Fiona, who became a global celebrity when she was born prematurely in 2017.
The baby hippo was born Wednesday night.
"We're just happy that the calf is healthy," said Christina Gorsuch, the director of animal care at the Cincinnati Zoo. "The sex didn't matter much to the hippo team, but it will be interesting to observe and compare the behavioral differences between a hand-raised girl and a mom-raised boy. Will this calf be as comfortable with humans as Fiona is? Will he be less independent? Will he love cameras?"
The new calf weighs at least twice as much as Fiona did and is already walking, according to Gorsuch.
The zoo is asking for the public's help to name the new baby hippo. Anyone wishing to suggest a name can do so by clicking here. Submissions will be reviewed and a name will be announced later this week.
Zoo members have access to live cams in the outdoor habitat and can watch the action in Hippo Cove from 8:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Access to the live hippo cams is also available to Virtual Members.
Staff at the zoo discovered the calf's mother, 23-year-old Bibi, was pregnant around April Fool's Day. It came as a surprise because Bibi was on birth control.
"Bibi and the baby, 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 bloat for about that amount of time in the wild, and we try to give Bibi the choice to do what feels natural to her."
Bibi's first baby, Fiona, only weighed 29 pounds (13 kilograms) when she was born six weeks premature and wasn't able to stand on her own. Fiona now weighs 2,000 pounds (907 kilograms), the zoo said.
The zoo saw an increase in visitors and social media views after Fiona's birth. Some animal rights groups criticized it for marketing a captive animal.
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Copyright 2022 WDRB Media. The Associated Press contributed to this report.
