Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Hippo in zoo gives birth

— Photo: C. Ratheesh Kumar

NEW ADDITION: A newborn hippo calf with its mother at the Thiruvananthapuram zoo on Saturday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The hippo population of the city zoo went up by one on Saturday when Bindu, a five-year-old female, gave birth. The sex of the newborn is yet to be determined.

Arundhati and Shekar were the first hippo ‘couple’ at the city zoo, way back in 1968. All the hippos at the zoo now are the offspring of these two animals. In fact the father of the new born is none other than Shekhar himself, zoo officials said.

In addition to the cub born on Saturday, the city zoo has eight hippos; two males and six females. The gestation period for the hippo ranges from 220 to 240 days and there is usually only one calf. There hippo births at the zoo last year and the year before that.

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