Two hippos partially submerged in a greenish water body surrounded by aquatic plants under natural daylight. 1:01
San Diego Zoo channel icon San Diego ZooOriginal creator 721K views Save

San Diego Zoo's first pygmy hippo calf in 30 years

For the first time in more than 30 years, the San Diego Zoo has a new pygmy hippo calf. He's a healthy boy, and he is already in the water. more

His mother is Mabel, four years old and a first-time mom. The two of them come up side by side, one big head and one very small one just above the surface.

Two hippo heads, one large and one small, rise above green water with grass behind them. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
The new calf surfaces next to his mother in the pool at the San Diego Zoo.

He weighed 12.4 pounds at birth. Pygmy turns out to be the right word. In the pool he is mostly a head, with the rest of him floating just under the green surface.

A small dark hippo calf floats in murky green water with only the top of his head showing. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
Born at 12.4 pounds, the calf floats with his head just above the green water.

He didn't have a name yet when the zoo shared the news. The name can wait. A healthy calf and a mother who is doing fine were news enough.

Two hippos partially submerged in a greenish water body surrounded by aquatic plants under natural daylight. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
For the first time in more than 30 years, the San Diego Zoo has a new pygmy hippo calf.

Pygmy hippos are endangered. They come from the forests of West Africa, and fewer than 2,500 are left in Africa. Mabel herself is a long way from those forests. With numbers that low, one healthy calf counts for a lot.

A dark hippo calf with wet skin and small ears sits partly underwater beside green plants. A headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
He's the zoo's first pygmy hippo calf in more than 30 years.

For now he paddles near the side of the pool, where green plants grow at the water's edge. He has a lot of growing to do, and he seems in no rush.