Playtime Helps Cincinnati Zoo's Baby Hippo Build Muscle

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s staff has been keeping its baby hippopotamus active in order to build her muscles for when she is in the big hippo pool. The zoo released video on Saturday, May 20, showing Fiona playing with the zoo staff.It’s unclear if the box in the new video is the same box Fiona was videod playing with earlier this week.“Fiona’s care team tries to keep her active when she’s awake to help her build muscle and the strength that she will need to propel herself up to the surface of a nine-foot-deep pool,” the zoo wrote on Facebook.The zoo staff has been training Fiona to use the deeper pool indoors so she can head outside to the hippo enclosure with the deep pool. The indoor pool Fiona uses is now the same depth as the outdoor pool. It’s unclear when Fiona may go outside for the first time.Fiona was born six weeks early in January at just 29 pounds, well below the normal 55-110 pound birth weight for hippos. A team from the zoo has been caring for her away from her parents — BiBi and Henry — since her birth. Fiona and BiBi have been re-introduced with barriers between the two recently, which have been positive, according to the zoo.