Definitive Proof That There's Nothing Cuter Than A Baby Hippo Learning To Swim

Started by HuffingtonPost, Jun 24, 2015, 05:31 PM

HuffingtonPost

Baby pygmy hippo Obi might only be 3 weeks old, but he sure is getting the hang of this whole swimming thing.

Obi and his mom, Petre, ventured into a large pool at the Melbourne Zoo last week for Obi's first real swim -- and, by the looks of it, he's a natural. As Obi bobs up and down and flicks his tiny hippo ears, we can't help falling in love.

For the past few weeks, Obi -- whose name means "heart" in Igbo, a Nigerian language -- had been learning to swim in a shallow nursery pool, but zookeepers thought it was time for him to take the next step.

Pygmy hippos, which grow to about one-quarter the weight of a regular hippopotamus, are highly endangered, with only a few thousand estimated left in the wild.

Below are a few GIFs so you can watch Obi on an infinite loop:

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Source: HuffingtonPost