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Moo Deng, who was 2 months old when this photo was taken, plays with an animal keeper at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi Province, Thailand, September 19, 2024.Sakchai Lalit/Associated Press
The youngest of the Franklin Park Zoo trio is Ptolemy, son of mom Cleopatra (Cleo for short) and dad Inocencio (also called Ino). Ptolemy, the first pygmy hippopotamus born at the New England Zoo, celebrated his fourth birthday earlier this month. Cleo came to the zoo from Toronto in 2007 when she was 15, while Ino moved from Chile in 2013 when he was just 2 years old. Previously, there was a pair of pygmy hippos at Stoneham’s Stone Zoo that lived “for quite a long time but, according to Farrell, they never achieved reproductive success” before dying.
Ptolemy’s birth came after years of efforts by the zoo to impregnate Cleo as part of the Species Survival Plan, a program coordinated by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums that aims to ensure the continuation of certain species that are, in many cases, threatened or endangered in the wild. Farrell notes that there are “probably only 2,500 to 3,000” pygmy hippos left in the wild, and they currently only inhabit the West African countries of Liberia, Côte d’Ivoire, Sierra Leone and Guinea due to continued destruction of their natural habitat of swamps and forests.
Inocencio will drink water after breakfast at the Franklin Park Zoo.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
Because Ino was “quite young” when he arrived in Boston, and due to the lack of male pygmy hippos in AZA zoos, Zoo New England first tried to impregnate Cleo through artificial insemination, which had never been done before for this species. In 2016, Ino’s frozen semen sample was successfully thawed. Although insemination efforts did not result in a successful pregnancy, the zoo “has made great strides in understanding the process” for the pygmy hippos, Farrell notes.
In 2017, Ino and Cleo were introduced to each other (pygmy hippos usually live alone), which led to pregnancies in 2018 and 2019, but in both cases the calves were stillborn. Finally, in 2020, Ptolemy was born.
Visitors to the Franklin Park Zoo can see the trio of pygmy hippos almost every day of the year – except Thanksgiving and Christmas, when the zoo is closed – in an enclosed and heated area of the rainforest. The public exhibit includes a main adult exhibit that includes a large, deep pool for older pygmy hippos to splash around in.
“They love being in the water,” Farrell said. “They don’t really swim, but rather walk along the bottom and are really good at holding their breath.”
The zoo’s rainforest also includes a smaller area that has been set up primarily for the use of females and their calves, but can be used by “any adult at any time,” according to Farrell. This space has a smaller and shallower pool where calves can use their sea legs a little more safely and “do things with pygmy hippos.”
Ptolemy is the baby of the family.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
In addition to both exhibits on public display, the pygmy hippopotamus family has two play areas behind the scenes, including a second area with a large pool where adults can “hang out” and “get to know each other” when they can be paired up, notes Farrell. The second space includes more dry land and less water, built primarily for mothers and their calves, especially after their first birth.
When it comes to caring for all three of them, the pygmy hippopotamus family usually munches on plenty of alfalfa, hay and timothy hay every day, as well as a “specially formulated grain” that is fed to herbivores in zoos to ensure they are well enough to get the vitamins they need. As a treat, keepers occasionally feed them foods such as romaine, apple, and sweet potato, but in limited quantities because they are sweeter than the common plant material they eat in the wild.
The pygmy hippopotamus family usually eats a lot of alfalfa, hay, and timothy hay.David L. Ryan/Globe Staff
“Pygmy hippos have very slow metabolisms, so we watch their diet and intake very closely,” Farrell said. The rainforest curator also notes that unlike Moo Deng’s keepers, the Franklin Park Zoo practices “protective contact,” meaning they only interact with the animals through a barrier. “It’s still really fun and exciting to see them learn and do all the things you see in Moo Deng’s movies.”
While Farrell and the zoo “would like to see more calves born in Boston in the future, it’s “a little difficult” right now for several reasons. There isn’t enough room at the zoo for another calf at the moment, and since pygmy hippos in zoos usually live into their twenties and thirties, Cleo is now a little too old to be pregnant again.
“We hope that he will remain retired,” Farrell said, noting that the zoo will follow the recommendations of the AZA Species Survival Plan, “whether to keep our hippos or send them to other locations to mate with genetically matched hippos.” .
“I imagine that sometime in the future we will have calves again,” she added. “It will simply depend on making sure all the pieces of the puzzle are moving where they need to be and we are set up for success.”
Matt Juul can be reached at [email protected].
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