Wildlife Park’s Sneaky Way of Getting Baby Hippo Onto the Scale Is Too Cute
Located in Goddard, Kansas, Tanganyika Wildlife Park is home to a variety of different animals, including an adorable baby hippo named Latke. Latke was born during Hannukah in 2023, which of course is how he got his name. Since then, we've got to watch him grow and play and I always look forward to seeing videos of him, like this one that the park posted on Thursday, June 27th.
The park needed to find out how much Latke weighed, which meant that they had to get him on the scale to find out. That's a tricky thing to do since Latke can be pretty stubborn and will refuse to do anything he doesn't want to do. The park decided to lure him onto the scale with the same thing that parent everywhere use when our toddlers are being stubborn, food!
Of course, the food bribe worked, and no parent anywhere is surprised that it did! Tanganyika reported in their caption that Latke is "99 pounds of handsome hippo". Commenter @Juliet added, "99 pounds of cuteness!" and @Damonia added, "I feel seen and attacked at the same time!" Latke only weighed about 13 pounds at birth, so he's put on some pounds in just 6 months; he's growing so fast!
Related: Baby Hippo Taking a Swim at Kansas Wildlife Park Is Full of Sweetness
What Kind of Hippo is Latke?
Latke was born on December 14, 2023, to parents Posie and Pluto and is the fourth baby hippo of the couple born at the wildlife park. Latke might look a bit different than the animal you think of when you see a hippo in your head; Latke is a Pygmy Hippo, which are much smaller than the more commonly known Nile Hippos. While they're much smaller, by the time he is full grown he'll weigh between 400 and 600 pounds. That might sound like a lot, but adult Nile hippos weigh between 3,000 up to almost 10,000 pounds!
Pygmy Hippos come from the West African rainforests while Nile Hippos are found in, you guessed it, the Nile River, stretching to Tanzania and Mozambique. While Nile Hippos can get aggressive when their territory is invaded, Pygmy Hippos tend to be more solitary and less confrontational; they are not territorial like the Nile hippos.
Size wise, the two hippos look different, but they do share some similarities. Both Pygmy and Nile Hippos are nocturnal. They also have similar diets; they are herbivores and eat things like grasses, fruits, and plants. Both are devoted parents to their offspring, meaning they invest time and effort into raising their young, and are very protective of their calves.
Latke's a cutie and he always makes me smile. I can't wait to see the next video that Tanganyika shares of the little (big!) guy!
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