Hip, hip, hooray! Video shows hippo siblings meeting for first time at Cincinnati Zoo

So hippo to see you!

An lovely child hippopotamus met his older sister for the primary time whereas frolicking underwater in an enclosure on the Cincinnati Zoo.

A video clip posted on-line by the zoo exhibits 3-week-old Fritz eagerly waddling into Hippo Cove forward of lumbering mother Bibi on Wednesday.

Fritz is seen on digicam.

Cincinnati Zoo

Cute footage exhibits 3-week-old hippo Fritz assembly his older sister, Fiona, on the Cincinnati Zoo.

Cincinnati Zoo

Older sister Fiona, 5, appeared curious when Fritz approached however adopted cues from their mom and backed away earlier than the Nile hippo calf was capable of bump noses along with her, the zoo mentioned.

“This primary intro went very nicely,” mentioned Christina Gorsuch, the zoo’s director of animal care.

“Bibi was appropriately protecting of Fritz however was not aggressive towards Fiona. The publicity was transient however an awesome first step.”

Fritz was born Aug. 3 following what the zoo mentioned in April was an surprising being pregnant whereas Bibi was on contraception medicine.

“We weren’t planning to welcome a child this quickly, however nature discovered a method and ignored our calendar,” Gorsuch mentioned on the time.

Fritz’s dad, Tucker, was acquired from the San Francisco Zoo in September.

Zookeepers wish to ensure that Fiona, Fritz and Bibi are comfy collectively earlier than permitting Tucker to hitch the hippo clan, referred to as a “bloat.”

Zookeepers had been shocked to listen to about Bibi’s being pregnant this previous April Idiot’s day on April 1, 2022.

Liz Dufour/Cincinnati Enquirer / USA Right now Community/Sipa USA

Fritz bumped heads together with his older sister, Fiona.

Cincinnati Zoo

It’s unclear when that can occur and Hippo Cove can be closed to the general public — with its reside cams turned off — to offer the creatures privateness throughout future introductions, the zoo mentioned.

Hippos, which weigh as much as 8,000 kilos every, are the world’s heaviest land animals apart from elephants.

Within the wild, they reside in and across the lakes and rivers of sub-Saharan Africa, with an estimated inhabitants of not more than 130,000, in line with the World Wildlife Fund.

23-year-old hippo Bibi gave delivery to Fritz on August 3, 2022.

Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Backyard through AP

Zookeepers hope 3-week-old Fritz can work together with the remainder of the hippo clan.

USA TODAY NETWORK/Sipa USA

The species is listed as weak to extinction by the Switzerland-based Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature, which says the animals’ major threats to survival are lack of habitat to actual property improvement and poachers who kill them for meat and ivory.