By Kole Meschke
An adorable 11-pound friend has just joined the John Ball Zoo family.
Around 9:20 Wednesday evening, less than three miles from Grand Rapids Community College’s downtown campus, zoological history was made. John Ball Zoo’s resident pygmy hippo, Penelope, made an “exciting, giant push” and brought her 11-pound calf into the world.
“Right now this calf is starting out at about 11 (pounds), and is going to quickly pack on weight…overall they tend to run around 500 pounds,” said Jaime Racalla, John Ball Zoo Animal Care Supervisor.
Currently the calf, whose gender has not been revealed yet, is feeding solely off of Penelope’s milk, but over the next few months they will begin munching on mom’s vegetarian food, a diet consisting mainly of leafy greens.
In a media event, hosted Friday in front of the Hippo Habitat, the team at John Ball Zoo said they were hopeful that Penelope and her calf would make a public appearance by the end of the season, until then they’ll have some space and time to bond. Racalla, said, “As far as John Ball Zoo’s habitats go for our Pygmy Hippos, we do have two which is great when we have both dad, Jahari, and mom and calf.” However, since Pygmy Hippos aren’t made for the cold, they’ll remain indoors during the cooler months. It should also be noted that Penelope, 7 and Jahari, 10, are in their prime breeding years so we can expect more pygmy hippos in the future.
Pygmy Hippos are an endangered animal, and so it’s not only important to the zoo and the community, but also to conservation efforts globally.
“Aside from being adorable, our community can connect, we have the chance to be around such a rare and elusive animal,” and with less than 2,500 Pygmy Hippos in the wild, and less than 100 under the care of the Species Survival Program, “adding even one individual for our community to connect with is really a great way to inspire hearts and minds,” said Racalla.
Following both the Species Survival Plan and natural behavior, Penelope and her calf will be together for a solid year. From there they will determine if the hippos genetics are useful for another institution, to help the population as well as inspiring those in other cities.
“So many people probably don’t realize when they visit the zoo that a lot of our endangered species have a program that looks at their complete genetics and manages them as an entire population,” Racalla said, ”We’re not concerned only about our individuals here at John Ball Zoo…so we’ll evaluate the genetics and make some good matches that way, but we’re also taking into account the welfare of those animals. We don’t want them moving all the time. We want them set up in successful places for their demeanor’s…From there we will make recommendations and work together cooperatively to move animals so that we can have the best chance possible for conservation efforts.”
Currently the Species Survival Plan is skewed towards female births, so a male would be well accepted.
So what’s next for this new hippo family? Next week, on Thursday, Sept. 11, there will be a gender reveal at John Ball Zoo, beginning at 11:30 a.m. Until then, you can follow along through the live stream broadcast on their website, GRCC students are encouraged to visit the zoo for free with their RaiderCard and a GoSeeGR pass from the college’s Center for Student Life and Leadership.
“One of our major missions at the zoo is connecting our guests to our wildlife here just to inspire everyone to make a difference,” said Racalla. “It’s a great chance to be inspired by a species that you’re just not going to see in the wild.”
