It doesn’t get much cuter than baby animals. Between their clumsy walk, their curious personalities, and their tiny sizes, there are thousands\u2014perhaps millions\u2014of reasons to adore Earth’s youngest creatures. Of course, some babies are much bigger than others, but even nature’s biggest babies pale in comparison to their parents.<\/p>\n
Everyone knows that hippopotamuses are massive animals capable of causing extensive damage, and comparing the sizes of a newborn baby hippo<\/a> and their mom proves just how huge these creatures can become. A lucky visitor at Londolozi Game Reserve in South Africa witnessed the moment when a newborn hippo emerged from the river alongside its mama, and their incredible size difference has to be seen to be believed. The little one is the size of its mama’s snout!<\/p>\n How cute! The baby hippo was so eclipsed by Mom’s reflection in the water that I hardly noticed they were climbing out. Mom noticed, however, and she wasted no time leading the way for her little one to follow.<\/p>\n Commenters like @dreamsoft76 could relate to this universal moment of parenthood: “Every Mom on the planet dragging their kid out of the pool.” Hippopotamus moms have an even harder time with this than human moms do, according to the Philadelphia Zoo, because baby hippos are born underwater<\/a>! Hippos can nurse their young in the water, too, so babies spend a lot of time beneath the surface.<\/p>\n Related: Viviana the Hippo Celebrates 50th Birthday at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in the Sweetest Way<\/a><\/p>\n As another viewer pointed out, this might be the baby’s first time out of the water. @Creativecap14 noticed, “That is a newborn! Still has umbilicus!” If you look closely, as the baby animal turns to the side after exiting the river, you can see it for yourself.<\/p>\n @Shleeezyy got people thinking when they wrote, “The baby hippo<\/a> is adorable, but I\u2019ve never seen a teenager hippo. They\u2019re either big or tiny, never medium. Am I tripping?” They may be onto something, because baby hippos grow incredibly fast.<\/p>\n How Much Do Hippos Weigh?<\/p>\n As the Philadelphia Zoo explains, baby hippos weigh about 60-110 pounds at birth. By their first birthday, however, they weigh around 500 pounds!\u00a0A fully grown hippopotamus can weigh anywhere from 2200 lbs to 9900 lbs, with males being much larger than females.<\/p>\n Hippos’ massive size is just one reason why they’re considered the most dangerous animal in Africa. Males are also incredibly territorial and ferocious, especially when challenging other males. Despite this frightening aggression, hippopotamuses are incredible wild animals<\/a> who should continue to be protected, just like this mom and baby in the South African game reserve.<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc36<\/a>SIGN UP to get \u201cpawsitivity\u201d delivered right to your inbox with inspiring & entertaining stories about our furry & feathered friends<\/a>\ud83d\udc3e\ud83d\udc3e<\/a><\/p>\n This story was originally published by PetHelpful<\/a> on Apr 6, 2026, where it first appeared in the Pet News<\/a> section. Add PetHelpful as a Preferred Source by clicking here.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It doesn’t get much cuter than baby animals. Between their clumsy walk, their curious personalities, and their tiny…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379880,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[137015,181872,85,46,141,386],"class_list":{"0":"post-379879","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wildlife","8":"tag-baby-animal","9":"tag-baby-hippos","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-science","13":"tag-wildlife"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379879","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379879"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379879\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/379880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379879"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379879"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379879"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}