Fiona Update: Go Your Own Way

Team Fiona at the Cincinnati Zoo continue to prepare Fiona for her eventual public debut, with visits to the outdoor pool where she will live. After one such session, the headstrong baby decided to run off by herself!

But wait, there’s more Fiona! At a special appearance for the press, Fiona delighted photographers by swimming up to the window to check them out. This is a 30-minute unedited video and has some technical problems in spots, but if you’re patient you’ll see some cute moments. Thanks to Fiona-watcher Lois M. for sharing this with us.




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11 thoughts on “Fiona Update: Go Your Own Way

  1. debg June 6, 2017 / 11:18 am

    Fiona’s burst of speed reminds me of my chubcat Josephine running: intense over a short period of time.

  2. Doug June 6, 2017 / 11:20 am

    How to you direct a Hippo full of energy?

    You don’t .. you just get outta her way or get mowed over

    But .. I wanta go that way .. not the way you are trying to steer me.

  3. Duckie ? June 6, 2017 / 12:22 pm

    I love the way she stops after a few feet: “Aren’t you going to chase me?”

  4. tara June 6, 2017 / 5:42 pm

    Wait. What?!!
    How are there only three comments on this post!? Oh, maybe, like me, you are just regaining your senses after being knocked out by all the cute.
    The surfacing whale snort and then the mini hippo galloping…. uh oh… oh dear… there I go again…. klunk.

  5. Murray C June 6, 2017 / 6:34 pm

    I got so involved in looking at the longer video – tho’ I can’t look at the whole thing right now. She’s doing great – the people in the crowd are commenting on how she can propel herself all the way to the surface in a 9 foot tank! Yay, Fiona. Go, you wet little avocado, you1

    • tara June 6, 2017 / 8:25 pm

      snort.
      Wet Avocado?! haha!

      • Murray C June 6, 2017 / 11:02 pm

        I can’t take credit for that – when asked what she felt like, one of the caretakers described her that way.

    • fkaWaldenPond June 6, 2017 / 10:45 pm

      Ahhh!! Wet avocado!! πŸ˜€

    • Faye June 6, 2017 / 10:45 pm

      Omg! Ded again!

  6. Michael June 7, 2017 / 6:14 am

    I couldn’t figure out why she stopped short — there seemed to be a gust of wind; I thought maybe she didn’t like it blowing in her face — but Duckie probably has the true explanation with his β€œAren’t you going to chase me?”

    I commented on the June 2 Fiona post that I was surprised to see fish in the hippo tank. I gave some reasons, but one I thought of but didn’t list (because it’s disgusting) was that hippos probably poop in the pool and that seems like it’d be bad for the fish. I could not have been more wrong. Today my “high speed” internet has something wrong with it and is operating at dial-up velocity, so today’s video wouldn’t play, so I kept tracing it back to its source trying to find a version that would play (and finally succeeded) — and my last stop was the Cincinnati Zoo’s Twitter page. Someone must have asked about the fish, because they had a cute photo of Fiona with one of the fish with the following explanation: “Tilapia are in the hippo pool to eat dung & help keep the water clear. Fiona is aware of the fish & interacts with them sometimes!”

    So much for poop being bad for the fish. That’s why they’re there. That’s why it’s that particular species. And, does knowing they eat poop make anyone else rethink their desire to eat tilapia?

    Another, less surprising tidbit from a different Tweet: “DYK the hippo pool is made up of reused rainwater?” My only question about that is, how much area must they collect rainwater from to fill a tank that size? But it DOES keep them from having to dechlorinate tap water. I’m pretty sure chlorinated water would not agree with a hippo’s skin.

    • Claire June 7, 2017 / 10:52 pm

      The Cincy Zoo is the “greenest zoo in America!” They have all sorts of awesome sustainability measures like the rainwater collection, and a nice educational displays about them throughout the park. It’s my favorite thing about the zoo, besides all the cute animals of course.

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