Fritz the Baby Hippo Explores His Outdoor Enclosure at the Cincinnati Zoo for the First Time
Fritz has reached a new milestone!
On Monday, the Cincinnati Zoo's 2-week-old baby hippo explored his outdoor habitat with his mom, Bibi, for the first time, the Ohio facility shared in a release.
"The habitat introduction went pretty much as we hoped it would," the Cincinnati Zoo's director of animal care, Christina Gorsuch, said. "Bibi, followed closely by Fritz, came out right away and walked into the pool. She showed great maternal instincts and used her body to block Fritz from spending too much time in deep water. He went under to nurse and explore a little but stayed right by mom."
The animals spent just over an hour frolicking in the water before heading back indoors, where they've been bonding since Fritz's birth.
Big sister Fiona, and Fritz's dad, Tucker, have yet to meet Fritz face-to-face, but the duo traded places with the mother and son and went outside after the pair, the zoo said.
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"We will continue to expose Fritz to the habitat more and more in the coming days," Gorsuch said. "Once we're confident that he and Bibi are comfortable in all corners of that space, visitors will get a chance to see them."
Earlier this week, the zoo announced the name of their "spunky" social media star, born on August 3.
Cincinnati Zoo
After filtering through over 90,000 name suggestions from fans, the animal care team at the Cincinnati Zoo narrowed the pool to two names: Fritz and Ferguson. The zoo left the final decision to a public vote. On Monday, after tallying up over 200,000 votes, the zoo announced on the TODAY Show that the name Fritz won, receiving 56 percent of the vote.
"Everyone loves an alliteration, but we didn't necessarily do that on purpose," Jenna Wingate, a senior hippo keeper at the Ohio zoo, said on the NBC morning show, adding that "Ferguson was super cute and we all loved that as well" but that "Fritz just seemed to fit him."
Cincinnati Zoo Instagram
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Fritz's arrival has already proven to be a departure from big sister Fiona's birth.
The new calf was larger at birth than Fiona, Bibi's first baby, with Fiona weighing only 29 pounds when she was born six weeks premature in 2017.
"This new calf weighs at least twice as much as Fiona did and is already walking," Gorsuch said in a statement shortly after Fritz's birth. "We're not sure if nursing has occurred yet because the water is murky. It's Bibi's first time nursing, since Fiona had to be cared for by the hippo staff, so we're keeping a close eye on them to make sure we don't need to step in."
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"The sex didn't matter much to the hippo team, but it will be interesting to observe and compare the behavioral differences between a hand-raised girl and a mom-raised boy," Gorsuch added. "Will this calf be as comfortable with humans as Fiona is? Will he be less independent? Will he love cameras?"
