How to Take Care of a Baby Hippo

Nosotros've watched her gain weight, outgrow pools, graduate to bigger bottles.

Fiona, the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Gardens' sweet-faced premature hippo dogie, is an undeniable internet darling. She is too stubborn, slimy and sometimes uses her pool every bit a toilet.

Her keepers, also known as members of "Squad Fiona," have sweat, shed tears and suffered more than a few bruiseson the roller coaster that was her beginning three months. And, in between all that, they've done a whole lot of cleaning.

They sum it up as the feel of a lifetime.

The shaky offset

Christina Gorsuch, curator of mammals and "double-decker" of Team Fiona, was amidst the commencement people to arrive at the zoo after watching Bibi requite birth to Fiona on camera. That was at 2:58 a.m. on Jan 24, vi weeks before than the infant hippo was supposed to come into the world. Still into it she came, eyes like Bibi's and coloration like her male parent, Henry.

"I was amazed she was alive," Gorsuch said.

Showtime, she was so pocket-size, just 29 pounds. Earlier she became an outlier, recorded birth weights for baby hippos ranged from 55-120 pounds. Even worse, she couldn't nurse. Zoo staff knew they had to stride in.

Africa keeper Jenna Wingate recalls her first glimpse of Fiona. "She didn't look real," she said.

Fiona takes a nap in the shower

Across the fact that no one in the room had laid optics on a premature babe hippo before, office of that illusion was Fiona's feet. Hippos accept four hooved nails, but at nativity, Fiona's were soft, near gelled, and white. "They looked nigh pickled," Africa keeper Wendy Rice said.

Normally, 2 people from the 6-person Africa staff would exist designated every bit the chief caretakers for the new addition. But with Fiona'south need for round-the-clock care, the roster expanded rapidly. Team Fiona grew to 25 people strong, including veterinarians, Africa staff and others. One African keeper, Teresa Truesdale, stayed with her every single night, without a nighttime off, for five straight weeks.

They all had a job to do, one that very few people on the planet will ever experience: To serve every bit surrogate parents for a calf of a species that's been called Africa'south nigh dangerous fauna.

"1 of her kickoff nicknames was 'Petty Spoon' considering all we did was spoon with her," Rice said.

As appealing every bit snuggling with a little hippo sounds – and was – those early on days were emotionally draining. The kickoff calendar week, every day was a question mark. Even as time went on, the keepers felt like they'd no sooner solve i health issue than another would popular upward.

"At that place were at least three major hurdles that she got over that we weren't certain," Gorsuch said. "She tried to die on us a couple of times. Anybody did a great job, simply it actually wore us down."

Early on, the keepers tried to keep their emotional distance. But the physical closeness fabricated that a tall social club.

"I started building an emotional wall betwixt me and the baby," Rice said. "But so you start taking care of her 24/7. It's impossible not to go attached.

"I cried on the fashion home a lot," she admitted. "It's the most emotionally exhausting thing I've always been through."

Disconnecting, fifty-fifty for a while, was tough. When her keepers weren't there, they'd oft watch her on video. "You lot endeavour to force yourself to have some work-life residue, but it's hard because you're so emotionally invested," Rice said.

There were concrete demands, as well. Like the sweating: Information technology was 98 degrees in the area where Fiona spent her first days. Because she couldn't regulate her ain trunk temperature, her caregivers had to keep the ambience temperature at the desired 98 degrees.

It'due south also pretty easy for even a babe hippo, with her dense, compact fiddling body, to accidentally injure her human companions.

"She'south like a petty tank," Rice said. "We all take bruises on our legs.

"She does a head-tossing thing that hippos do," she added. "We've all learned to go along our heads back. You merely take to get hit in the head once."

Wingate learned to keep her pinky toes out of the way, too.

Fiona the baby hippo has inspired a children'southward book

Adding to the complexities of Fiona's care is the fact that it has all been done in the public eye.

"It'southward a difficult line to walk of wanting to be positive and wanting to be realistic," Gorsuch said.

And in that location was the weight of not wanting to disappoint Fiona'southward fans. She has 508,000 of them on Facebook lonely. (If yous think that'southward a lot, consider this: Her most popular Facebook post had a accomplish of 32 million, with 574,000 likes, 167,000 shares and 117,000 comments.)

Plus she'southward gotten stacks and stacks of fan mail. People fabricated scrapbooks. Mothers of premies reached out with their stories. One mother got her son to give up his pacifier past telling him they'd send it to Fiona.

Despite the added force per unit area, the public back up really helped with the emotional load. Tears over a tough 24-hour interval would ofttimes modify to tears of gratefulness for all that love. Rice read social media comments to Fiona, request the hippo, "do you see how many people say you need to brand information technology?"

They're not quite sure when they started to feel certain she would.

For Wingate, it was later on nothing bad happened for two direct weeks. Gorsuch breathed a sigh of relief the first time she saw Fiona get in her big blueish pool and "porpoise" around similar a normal hippo.

New normal

These days, Fiona spends nights by herself. A keeper arrives at 5:xxx a.m. Fiona is usually sleeping, which she does some 16 hours a twenty-four hour period, in the puddle. When someone comes into the edifice, she'll move to the edge of the pool to smell them. She'south particularly fond of one item smell.

"When people come upward with coffee jiff, she loves information technology," Rice said. "Maybe she'southward just built that clan with the states staying upwardly all hours drinking coffee."

In any case, the first order of business is a weigh-in, followed by a feeding, the first of four for the twenty-four hours. Her caregiver prepares a ii.85-liter bottle of formula, warmed to exactly 100 degrees. (If it's also hot or too cold, Fiona won't drink information technology.) Fiona often uses their anxiety as a pillow while they work.

She'due south usually pretty active afterwards that, walking effectually and playing, getting in her exercise pool. And when she has to "go," she goes, fifty-fifty if she'southward in the puddle. (Her caregivers remove the solids with a skimmer.)

Fiona caption contest results are in and they're hilarious

When she'due south not in the puddle, her body produces what's called "blood sweat," a mucus-similar substance that her keepers describe as a sunscreen, bug repellant, coolant and antiseptic. Sometimes it stains their apparel. They use washcloths to clean her thick skin, which they say feels like a wet or slimy avocado.

Cleaning has been a constant in Fiona's ever-changing world. Everything she touches has to exist disinfected. Keepers have to wash their easily, change their apparel and take their shoes off when they come up into contact with her.

"When you bring your dress home, they reek," Rice said.

"Because yous're literally sitting in hippo poop," Wingate said.

Petty hippo, big personality

Still, when she gets the hiccups or decides to run or lets the hose run into her mouth, some of her keepers' favorite Fiona moments, it's all worth it.

Not to mention the obvious.

"She'southward ridiculously beautiful," Gorsuch said. "I'g a very jaded brute person, and the get-go fourth dimension I saw her, I was similar, 'that's ridiculous.' It makes tears well upwardly in your eyes how cute she is.

"Zookeepers tin get kind of jaded," she added. "Y'all're around amazing animals all solar day. There is no threshold for Fiona."

"We all nonetheless gawk over her every time," Wingate agreed.

And they say she has a large personality, likewise. Similar her mother, Bibi, she's sassy. Sometimes even stubborn.

"You lot cannot brand her do anything she doesn't desire to exercise," Gorsuch said.

Because they tin can't provide discipline the way a mother hippo could, they care for her more than like she'south a human toddler. If she won't follow them, they'll act like they're leaving the room. And similar a toddler, she'll come up running.

On the other hand, like dad Henry, she's affectionate, always wanting to exist in contact with someone. For now, that's her caregivers. Merely similar mothers, they know they'll soon have to let Fiona go. They've already stepped dorsum from their nightly vigils and snuggle sessions – "way harder for the intendance squad than information technology was for Fiona," Rice said. But someday, when she's big enough to brand it safety, they'll innovate her to Henry and Bibi and will cease direct contact with her altogether.

"I retrieve it's going to exist really hard," Wingate said.

And yet, as hard as it will exist, they've recognized that the opportunity to care for an beast like Fiona will likely non come again before long, if e'er.

"She was napping on my lap once and I idea, 'what if this is equally adept as my life gets?'" Rice said.

"I always tell people how magical she is," she added. "I honestly think we could have a unicorn in the belongings space next to her and I don't think I would bat an eye."

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Source: https://www.cincinnati.com/story/entertainment/2017/04/26/meet-team-fiona-what-s-like-take-care-zoos-baby-hippo/99991804/

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