Fiona the Hippo Meets Her Baby Brother Fritz: See the Super Sweet Video!
Sibling revelry!
Fiona the hippo finally met her new baby brother Fritz in the hippos' outdoor habitat on Aug. 24.
"This first intro went very well. [Mom] Bibi was appropriately protective of Fritz but was not aggressive toward Fiona," said Cincinnati Zoo's director of animal care, Christina Gorsuch, per a post on the zoo's website. "The exposure was brief but a great first step." The post added that Fiona was "curious" about Fritz, but "took her cues from her mom ... and backed off when Fritz got almost close enough for a nose boop."
According to the zoo's Facebook page, the hippo half-siblings met briefly on land earlier in the week.
"We will continue to put Fiona, Fritz, and Bibi together for short periods until we're confident that the three are comfortable together," Gorsuch shared. "The next step will then be to add [dad] Tucker to the mix. We don't have an exact timeline for when that will happen."
Fiona the hippo meets her baby brother, Fritz
Fritz joined the family on Aug. 3, the son of Bibi and Tucker, and the fourth hippo in the zoo's beloved Hippo Cove. Following his birth, zoo spokesperson Amy Labarbara told Today the little guy is "amazing. He's so strong. Just staying right with his mom and doing everything we want a baby hippo to do. He's swimming and just doing great." (Per the zoo's Facebook page, he was 138 lbs. already on Aug. 24!)
When Fiona, now 5, was born in 2017, she only weighed 29 lbs., 25 lbs. less than the lowest ever record weight for her species. Her journey to health made her famous, and she continues to attract admirers from around the world to the zoo.
Ahead of her sibling's arrival, Fiona celebrated one of her own accomplishments.
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"Fiona finally hit 2,000 pounds! She weighed in at 2,036 pounds this morning!" the zoo shared on Instagram in July. "We're so proud of how far she has come! 🦛🎉🎉🎉 #TeamFiona"
The Cincinnati Zoo initially announced Bibi's latest pregnancy in a release in April. Tucker arrived at the Cincinnati Zoo in September 2021 by way of the San Francisco Zoo, and Bibi and Tucker bred in December 2021, according to WWLT 5. Fiona's father, Henry, died from complications of an infection in 2017.
As the blended family continues to bond, Hippo Cove and the popular online hippo cam will be off limits from time to time. But plenty of hippo updates are made daily on the zoo's Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, and YouTube accounts.
