GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. — Hugo the baby Pygmy Hippo stole hearts when he was born in September at the John Ball Zoo. Now he's at it again, this time making his public debut in front of smaller crowds before a wider audience is welcomed in.
Grand Rapids
John Ball Zoo's baby pygmy hippo debuts to zoo members
This week Hugo and his mom Penelope are in the public eye for the first time as the zoo welcomed members to see the pair.
WATCH: Hugo the baby Pygmy hippo debuts at John Ball Zoo
"I noticed there's a lot of comments about why we're doing the members only and that's to give them the chance to adjust to the amount of people coming through," explained John Ball Zoo Curator Tim Sampson. "We do expect the crowds to be a lot bigger than normal and Hugo is still getting used to all that. So all last week we're having staff go through and spending time in there and then we bring our zoo schooler students in and spend some time in there. So they got used to that."
Born weighing roughly 11 pounds, Hugo now pushes the scale at 43 pounds. He's expected to continue to add a couple of pounds each day until he's fully grown.
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While he's a growing boy, the zoo says Hugo is still a toddler.
"He's pushing the limits. He's playing, he gets excited," said Sampson with a smile. "He gets the zoomies for no reason, which is always fun to watch. So we're starting to see his personality develop, so we're having a lot of fun with that."
John Ball Zoo had to modify the enclosure for Hugo to be safe, including changing the depth of the swimming pool.
"We made modifications in our pool in our dayroom for him so we could have different levels," explain Sampson. "So he could start out in a shallow pool and slowly move to deeper pools."
Those modifications were built so they could be easily removed, and returned if Hugo have a little brother or sister in the future.
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While the hippo exhibit is off-limits for general admission tickets right now, the zoo hopes to open up the viewing spaces as soon as this Saturday.
"Our members will definitely understand those challenges if they're sleeping or if we have to say we have to close it for a little while because they're getting a little too nervous," said Sampson. "So we're going to watch them for the next few days and we're hoping by the end of the week we're going to be in a position where we can expand the amount of people that can come in and see them."
