CINCINNATI — Bibi is on 24-hour baby watch as Cincinnati Zoo staff prepares to welcome Fiona's sibling.
If Bibi went into labor today, her calf would be considered full term, the Cincinnati Zoo said in a Facebook post. Fiona, now a 5-year-old, was six weeks premature when she was born and weighed just 29 pounds.
Fiona's story of survival captured not just Cincinnati's heart, but much of the world's — but zoo staff hopes to avoid replicating Fiona's journey with her sibling. When it was announced that Bibi was pregnant, zoo staff was immediately engaged in making sure Bibi's new baby is born without any concerns.
Part of insuring her calf's health is a regular procedure most human moms experience — ultrasounds.
Those ultrasounds show veterinarian Julie Barnes and the care team that Bibi's calf has been growing. In fact, on June 9 with about eight weeks to go, the calf was about the same weight Fiona was when she was born. Ultrasounds showed that the baby's heart was beating well — even the fluttering of the calf's feet.
Considering Fiona premature entrance into the world, these ultrasounds are also teaching veterinarians and the care team about a hippo's gestation.
The zoo wasn't quite prepared for Bibi to get pregnant so soon, but Bibi and Tucker, a hippo brought to Cincinnati from San Francisco, hit it off right away after he was introduced to Hippo Cove in September 2021.
“We weren’t planning to welcome a baby this soon, but nature found a way and ignored our calendar,” said Cincinnati Zoo’s director of animal care, Christina Gorsuch, in April when Bibi's pregnancy was announced. “Most forms of contraception, in hippos or humans, (are) not 100% reliable. The dose that was previously effective for Bibi did not prevent pregnancy this time.”
The Cincinnati Zoo's Volunteer Observer team started their birth watch of Bibi at the start of July, keeping an eye on the hippo daily during a video stream. But now she's under 24-hour watch as staff prepares for the pinnacle moment.
