Fiona the preemie hippo turned three months old yesterday, and she continues to grow and develop her natural hippo abilities. After Team Fiona introduced her to a bigger pool, they raised the water level so she could work on her diving skills.
But that’s not all. Here she is learning how to work her big hippo mouth, which will eventually be able to bend back 150 degrees when she’s a grown-up.
Some day Fiona will be able to open her mouth 150 degrees wide! #TeamFiona pic.twitter.com/ORx3MGNjIe
— Cincinnati Zoo (@CincinnatiZoo) April 23, 2017
At first sight it looked as if she had been floating next to an underwater xylophone!
(or maybe it is already bedtime for monsters with high temperature)
I’m kind of curious what she’s learning by standing on her head underwater, its kind of obvious that she floats.
So she’s obviously a witch.
I was wondering if she forgot which end of her is supposed to do the breathing!
Deeper? I’m so deep in love with this little girl, it’s not possible! Underwater ballet at its finest.
She needs a tutu!
You beat me to it – she’s the world’s blorpiest ballerina!
I loff how she stands on her tippy toes to scan where the people are. And the sleepy eyes when she picks up the ball in the 2nd video!
Hippos are so graceful in the water, it’s amazing.
So much to love here – as mentioned, standing on tippy toes, standing on head. Duckie, I love your remark about not knowing which end she was breathing from. I like the idea of increasing the size of the ball to stretch out her jaw. (I don’t really think that’s what they’re doing……. or do I???)
Big ball. Open mouth. Ack, ptui—not tasty!
Hipponotic swim. ? ? ?
Only three months!? I feel like we’ve been watching her much longer than that!