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Zoo using experience with premature babies for newest hippo

1,666 views · Published 3 February 2017 · 2:24 · Indexed 20 September 2026

Channel: LOCAL 12 · 2017 · News & Politics

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CINCINNATI (WKRC) - The Cincinnati Zoo's baby hippo was making real progress.

The female Nile hippopotamus was born 6-weeks early and was so premature she didn't know how to swim or nurse from her mother, Bibi. But she was in capable hands that were giving her round-the-clock care.

The new baby hippo at the zoo was making progress. She was three pounds over her birth weight and had an appetite. She can't yet stand to suckle so keepers were milking her mother and giving the newborn a hand. 

Curator of mammals for the Cincinnati Zoo, Christina Gorsuch, said Friday, January 27, "This morning she took a few suckles from a bottle which was a great sign. One of the mile markers we need her to achieve is to be able to feed herself. To be able to nurse from a bottle." Gorsuch continued, "She's had her pool time increased. We got her some pool noodles that she now floats on to help her get her feet under her."

Zoo officials were cautiously optimistic she would make it. It had been 90 years since a hippo born that premature survived to adulthood. The zoo has experience with preemies like Willow the cheetah and her litter mates.

Dawn Strasser, head keeper of nursery and quarantine at the Cincinnati Zoo, said, "I've personally dealt with several different preemie babies. Preemie Okapi, Eland, cheetahs. So some of those you kind of learn along the way they have common characteristics."

Their efforts were saving animals of species that need some help. 100 years ago there were 100,000 cheetahs. In January 2017 there were about 5,000. Hippos were struggling in captivity. In zoos, the sustainability of the population was in question. There was only about 80 hippos and few births.

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