Endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus makes public debut at Toronto Zoo

The Toronto Zoo is set to publicly unveil on Wednesday a rare and endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus born last month.

Kindia, a 12-year-old female, gave birth to a female calf on Aug. 10.

The zoo says the species is endangered and there are only about 2,000 to 3,000 left in the wild in West Africa, mostly in Liberia.

Small numbers are also found in neighbouring Sierra Leone, Guinea and the Ivory Coast.

Over the past 100 years, the pygmy hippo’s habitat has declined dramatically due to logging, farming and human settlement.

Kindia arrived at the Toronto Zoo from a zoo in France in June 2016 as part of a global breeding program. This is Kindia’s first surviving calf and the seventh birth of a pygmy hippopotamus in Toronto Zoo’s history.

The baby hippo will be on exhibit at the African Rainforest Pavilion between 9:30 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. daily beginning Sept. 20.

— With a file from the Canadian Press