Virginia Zoo’s latest addition is a pygmy hippopotamus

Watch out Moo Deng, there’s a new pygmy hippo in town. The Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia just announced the arrival of a healthy-looking female calf born earlier this month.

The hippo calf was born on December 9 to parents Iris and Corwin after a seven-month gestation, according to a zoo statement. The unnamed baby is the parents’ third calf in less than five years, and the second to appear just before the holidays. The successful birth is a particularly important event because pygmy hippos are a endangered species in nature.

pygmy hippos (Choeropsis liberiensis) are one of only two living hippo species left in the world, the other being the common hippo (Hippopotamus amphibius). As their name implies, pygmy hippos are much smaller than his cousins. Adult pygmy hippos can only weigh between 400 and 600 pounds, compared to adult common hippos that to weigh at least 3,000 pounds (common male hippos can weigh up to three times as much).

That said, pygmy hippos are still strong, even from the start. The Metro Richmond Zoo calf weighed 15 pounds five days after its birth, or about twice the weight of a typical human newborn. So far, everything seems to be going well, as the baby is breastfeeding and growing rapidly.

The arrival of the hippos could bring a flurry of attention to the zoo, given the public’s recent frenzy for children’s zoo animals, from Pesto the penguin to Kirby the zoo elephant Houston.

The Metro Richmond calf is one of several pygmy hippo calves making headlines this year, alongside a nameless calf at the Attica Zoological Park in Athens and the Edinburgh Zoo Haggis. The most famous hippo calf of the day, Moo Deng, became an Internet sensation practically overnight and faced his fair share of abusive, object-throwing fans at his home zoo in Thailand.

“Most people don’t get a hippo for Christmas, so we feel lucky to have received two over the years,” the zoo said in its declaration announcing the birth.

Iris and “New Deng” (brand pending) have been moved to a private enclosure filled with hay for now, which will allow them to bond properly, zoo officials said. Eventually, the calf will move into the publicly visible exhibit of the zoo’s indoor pool, where it will likely endear itself to adoring fans eager for more hippo content.

Pygmy hippos are much less aggressive than their common cousins, which are known to kill hundreds of humans a year in the wild, so there is little concern about the baby hippopotamus causing uncontrollable carnage.

Unlike common hippos, which live in herds, pygmy hippos usually live alone or sometimes in pairs as adults. Once the newborn calf is fully grown, the zoo plans to move her to another park or sanctuary where she can mate with a future mate and hopefully have her own offspring as part of ongoing conservation efforts.

Both species of hippopotamus are in front population problems in the parts of Africa they call home. But the situation of pygmy hippos is much more serious; About 2,500 pygmy hippos still exists in the wild, compared to more than 120,000 common hippos. So, as meme-able as this latest calf may become, its arrival is also vital to ensuring the long-term survival of the species.

Meanwhile, the Richmond Metro Zoo is already hard at work with PR for its star hippo. Just today, the zoo announced a public poll to decide the calf’s new name among four available options: Poppy, Juniper, Hammie Mae and Omi. The poll, which will close on December 31, can be viewed (and voted) here.