HOUSTON — Move over, Moo Deng, there's a new pygmy hippo in town.
The Houston Zoo welcomed Akobi recently and he's been getting acquainted with the new home he shares with the bongos.
Akobi is a four-and-a-half-year-old, 477-pound male pygmy hippopotamus moved to Houston from San Francisco as part of a breeding program. His name means "first-born" in Yoruba.
The Houston Zoo brought in another male pygmy hippo named Silas in 2020 but he died two years later when his heart gave out after a brief illness.
Moo Deng is a baby pygmy hippo who became an internet sensation after she was born in Thailand over the summer. She won the hearts of fans worldwide overnight with millions of TikTok views of her nibbling on her caretaker's knees, eating and napping.
8 fast facts about pygmy hippos
- The pygmy hippopotamus is one of two species in the family hippopotamidae.
- The pygmy hippo and the common have several key differences. Pygmies are much smaller, weighing between 400 to 600 pounds and standing about 3 to 5 feet tall. Their cousin hippos weigh between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds.
- While pygmy hippos are reclusive, common hippos are social animals that live in groups called pods.
- Pygmy hippos are more terrestrial and prefer land over water, unlike their cousins.
- They are herbivores who mostly forage during the night and can spend up to six hours a day feeding.
- Pygmy hippos are rare animals native to West African rainforests in the countries of Sierra Leone, Guinea, the Côte d'Ivoire and Liberia, according to the zoo.
- Pygmy hippos are threatened by several factors, including deforestation, extensive mining and hunting.
- Houston Zoo visitors can do their part to save them by recycling cell phones and other small electronics. These devices contain a metal mined where pygmy hippos live, and recycling cell phones reduces the demand. In 2024, Houston Zoo has recycled 1,264 electronic devices.
