Pygmy hippo was born in our zoo

The 1.5-month-old female is already on display in the outside enclosure

A pygmy hippo ( Choeropsis liberiensis) was born in our zoo. Now that the little animal has gained some strength, it has taken over the hippo exhibit in the Tarzan's Path enclosure, where the public can now see the long-awaited offspring.

The pygmy hippo, a very rare pachyderm on the brink of extinction, is now native to a very small area, unlike its five times larger 1.5 tonne Nile relative. Only 2,000 individuals remain in the tropical rainforests of West Africa. Its population is most threatened by deforestation, habitat loss and hunting, and it is therefore very important that they are bred in closed housing conditions under a coordinated breeding programme.

The breeding pair living in Nyíregyháza Zoo has been living in Nyíregyháza Zoo since 2009, Broutille (25) the female from France and her mate Hamlet (17), from Denmark, came to SóstóZoo under the European Conservation Programme.

The pygmy hippo breeding pair is very successful, with their fifth offspring born, the calves born in 2011, 2015, 2017 and 2022 are now living in another zoo.

Broutille, the mother in this case, is also very attentive, nursing her female offspring 4 to 5 times a day after 190 days of birth, who has already started to eat a solid diet of hay, vegetables and fruit.

While its relative, the Nile hippo, was known in antiquity, the pygmy hippo is one of the latest large-bodied mammal species to be discovered, at the end of the 19th century. That's because it is a shy animal with a hidden lifestyle, living deep in the West African rainforests, where white man has never been. It is not only different in body shape, but also in social behaviour and lifestyle from its larger relatives. The pygmy hippo is solitary and prefers to stay on land, fleeing into the dense bush rather than the water when threatened.