You can soon see pygmy hippos at this popular NC science center. Take a look
Three new additions arrived at the Greensboro Science Center on Monday from Florida — including two pygmy hippos and a close cousin of the giraffe.
The animals came from zoos in Miami and Tampa as well as Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom, the science center said in a Facebook post. They are slated to make their debut in late May at the facility’s new Revolution Ridge exhibit.
Revolution Ridge is a $15 million project that expands on the facility’s existing zoo with 35 new animals and a health and conservation center, Fox 8 reported.
Staff filmed the animals’ arrival Monday morning at the Greensboro Science Center.
Holly, a 3-year-old female pygmy hippo, came from Zoo Tampa. According to the zoo’s website, her full name is Holly Berry — the result of a naming competition the zoo held with a gourmet ice pop shop in Florida called “The Hyppo Gourmet Ice Pops.”
“The little bundle of joy made her debut weighing 9 lbs. at just 5 days old and proceeded to steal the hearts of everyone who saw her little rolls,” Zoo Tampa said.
Ralph, an 8-year-old male pygmy hippo, comes from Zoo Miami. He is the father of Aubergine, a pygmy hippo born at the zoo in 2018 with a cleft palate — a condition caretakers said had never been seen before in the species, the Miami Herald reported.
Pygmy hippos are about half as tall as a regular hippopotamus and about a quarter of the size, according to the Pygmy Hippo Foundation. They’re also nocturnal and “reclusive by nature.”
The pygmy hippo is native to West Africa and the source of popular folklore — including one tale in which pygmy hippos are said to carry a diamond in their mouths at night to see where they’re going in the forest, the foundation says. If a hunter catches one, so the story goes, they would also find a diamond.
The final new arrival at the Greensboro Science Center is a 14-year-old okapi from Disney’s Animal Kingdom called Bakari.
Opaki are the only living relative of the giraffe, National Geographic reported, though they look “more like a cross between a deer and a zebra.” They are native to the Democratic Republic of Congo and are classified as an endangered species.
At Disney’s Animal Kingdom, opaki are found in three places — at the Gorilla Falls exploration Trail, on the Kilimanjaro Safaris attraction or during the program Sense of Africa at the Animal Kingdom Lodge.
This story was originally published March 16, 2021 at 3:13 PM with the headline "You can soon see pygmy hippos at this popular NC science center. Take a look."
