RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A river hippopotamus calf weighing almost 50 kilos, an endangered species, is kept and cared for at the Guadalajara Zoo in western Mexico and has become its main attraction.
The unnamed baby celebrated its first month of life on Thursday with a cake made with raw carrots, alfalfa, and oatmeal, which its mother ate, the hippopotamus named Tami.
The caretaker of these animals, Alma Ortega Flores, explained that the little hippopotamus is breastfed during the first eight months of life. However, at around six months, it becomes completely independent from its mother.
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The little hippopotamus was born in captivity at eight months of gestation and in an in-water birthing process. This is the third calf of Tami and Tartufo, one of the male hippos at this zoo.
“We had to lower the water level a few days before so that the birth would be safer and we could observe that the calf was safe and drinking milk,” said the veterinary specialist.
During the first days, the caregivers had to bring food to the water since the mother preferred to breastfeed and sleep with her little one, described as a very restless calf who likes to explore the space where it lives and scare away the pigeons that come there.
The calf often frolics and escapes during feeding time from its mother, who goes to look for it and scolds it with a loud growl until the little one returns to her.
Visitors look for the baby and delight in its interaction with its mother or its movements out of the water, clapping and taking pictures.
The little hippo is about to reach 50 kilos in weight, but as an adult, he will weigh between one and a half and three tons and eat at least two kilos a day of cereal, alfalfa, carrots, and special food.
This species is in a vulnerable situation, that is, there is a low population of specimens due to poaching.
“It is vulnerable because of the care of their habitats, always this type of animals’ only predator is the human being because of the ivory of the tusks, and because the natural space where they live is reducing, so it is in a vulnerable state due to the human effect and climate change”, explained Ortega Flores.
For now, mother and child remain alone in a pond and far from Tartufo to protect the baby from any possible accident.