FULL VIDEO: Baby hippo Fiona explores zoo's Hippo Cove
TOPICS:
FionaCINCINNATI (WKRC) - Fiona the hippo is getting stronger every day and Wednesday night, Local 12 got the chance to share it with you!
The four-month-old hippo is slowly getting acclimated to the zoo's outdoor exhibit.
She and her care team have been doing some after-hour practice swims.
She's getting used to propelling herself from the bottom of the 9-foot deep tank.
It's remarkable progress considering she was born six weeks early and seriously underweight at just 29 pounds. This week, she weighed in at 265 pounds.
Cincinnati Zoo director Thane Maynard said, "Everybody has fallen in love with baby Fiona. I've traveled the world this year and strangers have come up to me and just talked about baby Fiona on and on. It's just remarkable."
ChristinaGorsuch, curator of the mammals at the Cincinnati Zoo, said, "She is right on track for weight and strength and consumption and all the things that we could hope for from a mother-reared hippo which we couldn't get a better reward than that."
The zoo expects Fiona will join her parents in Hippo Cove sometime this summer.
She is not yet available to be seen by the public, but the zoo plans for that to happen this summer as well.