Toronto 
The Toronto Zoo has welcomed a female pygmy hippo calf after her 20-year-old mother, Kindia, gave birth on Sunday, Aug. 2.
Credit: Toronto Zoo
Per the zoo’s social media post, Zoo staff first noticed signs of labour around 8:15 a.m. Tiny feet appeared at about 12:15 p.m., followed by roughly 90 minutes of active labour. Within 15 minutes of being born, the calf was already trying to stand. A few hours later, she was moving around confidently and nursing.
Kindia and her calf are doing well, but visitors will not see them just yet. They are resting in a private area of Little Hippo Hollow while zoo staff monitor them around the clock, including through overnight cameras.
This is Kindia’s third calf. She previously raised her daughter Penelope in 2018. The newborn’s father is Harvey, a 31-year-old male who spent eight days with Kindia in January.
The zoo said the early progress is encouraging, although survival can be difficult for pygmy hippo calves.
“Welcoming a pygmy hippo calf is far more than a celebration of new life,” Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong said, pointing to the species’ declining wild population and the conservation role of accredited zoos.
Pygmy hippos are classified as Endangered on the IUCN Red List. An estimated 2,000 to 3,000 remain in the wild, mainly in the forests and swamps of West Africa. Their habitat is being reduced by logging, mining, farming and human settlement, while hunting remains another threat.
The Toronto Zoo also supports field research in Ivory Coast, where teams from IBREAM and CSRS use camera traps and detection dogs to study the elusive animals. Researchers recently recorded rare nighttime footage of a mother and calf moving through the forest, grazing and entering the water.
