The excellent Guadalajara Zoo is currently celebrating its 30th anniversary but has another valid reason to be jumping with joy.
Gina, the zoo’s 12-year-old, one-ton hippopotamus, recently gave birth to a single calf, of which animal lovers and regular patrons of the facility have been anxious to glimpseof .
The cute baby hippo made its public debut this week in a brand-new installation built especially for mother and offspring that the zoo has named Kiboko Bwawa.
The space is designed to help the young hippo adapt to life in water and on land. Underwater viewing windows allow visitors to see the hippos as they swim. Two other above-ground platforms provide alternative viewing angles of the hippos in their living quarters.
Planning and building the new space took about eight months, while Gina’s pregnancy developed. The gestation period for a hippo lasts nearly a year.
Special filters were brought in from the United States, Zoo Director Francisco Rodríguez Herrejón explained. Hippos defecate underwater, and the filters were necessary to keep the water clean enough for visitors to get a good view of them swimming.
The calf, which has yet to be named, currently weights around 50 kilos. Mothers generally create milk for their young to suckle for about the first six to eight months of life.
The Kiboko Bwawa attraction is included in the zoo’s “Paquete Acuario” ticket package, which costs 130 pesos for adults and 75 pesos for children.
Reminder: the Zoo is open daily during the school vacation period, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Address: Paseo del Zoológico 600, Colonia Huentitán el Alto. Call (33) 3674-4488 for more information.