Maple the baby pygmy hippo loves belly rubs and sleeping. Why she’s a ‘massive victory’ for the Toronto Zoo - Toronto Star

The public can start visiting Maple, Canada's only baby pygmy hippo, at the Toronto Zoo on Tuesday.

Maple, a baby pygmy hippo born on Aug. 2 explores her habitat alongside her mother at the Toronto Zoo.

Grant Furniss has worked with zoos for more than three decades, but he said he’s never used the word “cute” to describe anything.

That is, until Canada’s only baby pygmy hippo — an endangered species — was born at the Toronto Zoo.

Starting Tuesday, the public can visit Maple, now six weeks old, in the African Rainforest Pavilion. (Visitation hours will be subject to her needs as well as bonding time with her mom.) 

"Every little thing that she does, she manages to turn into something cute," said Grant Furniss, the zoo's director of wildlife operations. "And I'm not a person that says 'cute,' but I have to in this instance."

“She’s 90 per cent sassiness and 10 per cent hippo at this stage,” said Furniss, the zoo’s director of wildlife operations. “Every little thing that she does, she manages to turn into something cute. And I’m not a person that says ‘cute,’ but I have to in this instance.”

Furniss related how one time when her mom wasn’t lying exactly how Maple wanted her to be for a snuggle, “She very nonchalantly just nudged mom until … she could get into the position that she really wanted to be in.”

Furniss said at one point they floated the name “Poutine” for the rollie-pollie log, who is now roughly 20 kilograms but is expected to grow to 60 kilograms in just a few months before reaching her mom’s size of just under 250 kilograms by her second birthday.

Maple was born to mom Kindia, 20, and dad Harvey, 31 — also Canada’s only adult pygmy hippos — which zoo workers describe as a major milestone given how rare the hippos are in the world and how challenging calf survival can be.

There are currently between 2,000 and 3,000 pygmy hippos left in the wild, according to estimates.

They are “an endangered animal that sadly is trending towards being even more critically endangered at this stage,” Furniss said. “So every pygmy hippo birth is a massive victory for this species.”

Pygmy hippos come from West Africa, predominantly Liberia but through Ghana as well. They live in densely forested areas.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature, there are currently between 2,000 and 3,000 pygmy hippos left in the wild, primarily because of widespread habitat loss from logging, mining, agricultural expansion and illegal poaching or hunting.

The Toronto Zoo said it has shifted from a traditional animal-display facility into a more purposeful conservation organization in recent years. 

For example, Maple will be an “ambassador to connect people to West Africa” and “all the different things that are happening in those countries so that people can understand the plight of the animal and why we have to have some of them under human care,” Furniss said. “To get rid of that stigma of we keep animals in zoos just to breed with them — we don’t.”

Maple is Kindia’s third calf. The first was lost during birth because she wasn’t yet an experienced mom, Furniss said. Penelope, her second calf born in 2018, has since moved to the John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Mich. as part of the species’ survival program.

Zoo members look on as Maple, a baby pygmy hippo, explores her habitat in the African Rainforest Pavilion.

The tiny tanklike hippo has been a success story in other ways, including standing up within 15 minutes of being born, nursing within a few hours and quickly learning how to move around with guidance from Kindia, explained Ali Vella-Irving, one of Maple’s keepers who’s been with her since the day she was born.

Maple likes belly rubs, her keepers say.

“She’s got lots of personality. She’s very spunky, energetic,” Vella-Irving said, adding Maple also loves belly rubs from her keepers. “She likes to sleep, then when she has her burst of energy, she’s zipping around.

Mahdis Habibinia is part of the Star's city hall bureau, based in Toronto. Reach her via email: mhabibinia@thestar.ca