The Toronto Zoo is getting ready to welcome a new addition, announcing Kindia the pygmy hippo is pregnant, with the calf due in late July. <\/p>\n
The Toronto Zoo family is growing this summer.<\/p>\n
The zoo announced on Tuesday that Kindia, its 20-year-old female pygmy hippopotamus, is pregnant.<\/p>\n
The calf is expected to be born in late July, the zoo said. <\/p>\n
\u201cCaring for a pregnant pygmy hippo comes with both hope and caution,\u201d the zoo said in a post on Instagram, calling it a \u201chippo-tastic update.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOur dedicated Wildlife Care and Health teams are closely monitoring her through behavioural observations and ultrasounds, and are ready to support her every step of the way.\u201d<\/p>\n
The zoo said Kindia was introduced to a 31-year-old male pygmy named Harvey in January.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was a planned interaction with the species survival plan group that recommended it. And of course, now we\u2019re seeing the fruits of that introduction, which is, of course, a baby that we\u2019re expecting this summer,\u201d said Marc Brandon, the wildlife care manager at the Toronto Zoo.<\/p>\n
He is referring to the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) Pygmy Hippo Species Survival Plan, which works to manage the population of the animal in human care and ensure they are paired on genetics, health and long-term sustainability.<\/p>\n
Brandon told CP24 on Tuesday night that Kindia is doing very well. He noted that the baby is expected to be about 10 to 14 pounds at birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey grow real fast,\u201d Brandon said. \u201cThey\u2019re a lot of fun as well. It\u2019s fun to watch them interact with mom. They can get quite pesky quite quick and of course, they\u2019re really entertaining to see as they kind of experience new and novel things for the first time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The calf will be Kindia\u2019s second baby. In 2018, She gave birth to Penelope, who is now at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Mich.<\/p>\n
Pygmy hippos, which are native to the forests and swamps of West Africa, are considered endangered, with fewer than 3,000 that remain in the wild.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is a lot of illegal poaching, and of course, habitat loss. That is part of the main reason for their low numbers. And so it\u2019s really important to be able to both educate people about them as well as have a greater understanding of them so we can help their wild counterparts,\u201d Brandon said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are excited. There\u2019s a lot of interest and opportunity. But at the same time, it\u2019s just so exciting to be able to contribute to the species as a whole,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The public should keep an eye on Toronto Zoo\u2019s social media for updates, including possibly picking the baby pygmy hippo\u2019s name, Brandon said.<\/p>\n
When asked if he\u2019s expecting the new calf to go viral online like Moo Deng, the baby pygmy hippo in Thailand, Brandon said each baby has their own personality.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t know that we\u2019re expecting kind of the same outcome in terms of personality, like we\u2019ve seen gone viral, but we might. We\u2019ll see,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Toronto Zoo is getting ready to welcome a new addition, announcing Kindia the pygmy hippo is pregnant,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":620110,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194291],"tags":[712,49,48,3302],"class_list":{"0":"post-620109","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-toronto","8":"tag-apple-news","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-toronto"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=620109"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/620109\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/620110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=620109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=620109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=620109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}