Fiona was born on January 24, 2017, six weeks early, weighing 29 pounds. A newborn Nile hippo normally weighs between 50 and 110 pounds. She was too small to stand and nurse from her mother, Bibi, so the Cincinnati Zoo’s care team took over, working around the clock to keep her warm and figure out how to feed her.
In February, a vascular access team from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital came in and placed her IV. Two of them, Darcy Doellman and Blake Gustafson, came back in August to see how their patient was doing.
Growing up in public
By then she was doing fine. The zoo logged her weight like a proud parent: 101 pounds on March 21, 200 pounds on April 30, 500 pounds by late September, 622 pounds by December. She started chaperoned pool time in June 2017 and, over almost two years of daily social media updates, became a celebrity, with a feature in The New York Times that November.
Her father, Henry, died in October 2017 after an infection that did not respond to treatment. Fiona and Bibi carried on together.
A surprise sibling
On August 3, 2022, Bibi gave birth again. This calf was full term, already walking and nursing, and nobody had planned it. Bibi’s birth control had failed.
“This calf looks huge to us because Fiona, Bibi’s first baby, only weighed 29 pounds when she was born six weeks premature, and wasn’t able to stand on her own,” Christina Gorsuch, the zoo’s director of animal care, told Axios. “This new calf weighs at least twice as much as Fiona did and is already walking.”
The zoo put the name to a public vote. More than 90,000 suggestions came in from all 50 states and more than 60 countries. In the final round, Fritz beat Ferguson with 125,183 of 223,542 votes.
“We would have been happy with either name, but we really think the name Fritz fits this spunky little guy’s personality,” said Wendy Rice, the zoo’s head hippo keeper. “We also thought it was funny that it was suggested because ‘Fritz’ is here due to Bibi’s birth control being ‘on the fritz.'”
Fiona turned nine on January 24, 2026. The zoo marked it with a $9 birthday gift offer that came with a chance to meet the whole bloat, the collective noun for a group of hippos, in person.
Sources
- Cincinnati Zoo, Hippo Baby Fiona Updates (2017 care log)
- Cincinnati Zoo, Fiona the World-Famous Hippo
- Axios, Fiona the hippo gets a sibling (Aug. 2022)
- Cincinnati Zoo, Hello Fritz! (Aug. 2022)
- NPR, Fiona the hippo’s little brother has a name after a worldwide contest (Aug. 2022)
- Cincinnati Zoo, A $9 Birthday Gift for Fiona (Jan. 2026)
