Fiona, Cincinnati Zoo’s Heartthrob Hippopotamus, Turns 4 Sunday

CINCINNATI — It may seem like yesterday that the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden’s baby hippopotamus Fiona wiggled into hearts around the world by surviving against substantial odds. But she's 4, and my how she's grown since her fragile beginnings.

Four is practically an adult for a Nile hippopotamus. The zoo says she’ll spend her special day eating cake, delighting her adoring fans on Facebook and raising money to help the zoo offset revenue losses when it had to shut down for the coronavirus pandemic.

Throughout her life, Fiona has bridged the hippopotamus and human worlds multiple times, a big part of what makes this heartthrob such a rock star among her adoring fans.

The baby hippo was dangerously small and fragile when she arrived six weeks ahead of schedule on Jan. 24, 2017. Fiona weighed only 29 pounds, about half the previous record for the lowest birth weight for a Nile hippopotamus, and far below what’s normal — somewhere between 55 and 120 pounds.

In early February 2017, the baby hippo refused to nurse, and the human caretakers stepped in. Hand-raising a premature hippo was going to be a difficult undertaking under the best of circumstances, but during Fiona's first of month of life, "every member of our team has been tested professionally and emotionally," Wendy Rice, a member of Fiona's care team, wrote on the zoo blog at the time, "but Fiona, thankfully, is still alive."

Fiona continued to deteriorate, growing more dehydrated, lethargic and sicker. The nationally renowned Vascular Access Team at nearby Cincinnati Children’s Hospital rehydrated her. Her infirmary was close enough to smell mom and dad Bibi and Henry, but her domain was human populated.

Maintaining Fiona's body temperature at an optimum level was tricky. Being too cold could be fatal for the Nile hippopotamus, but if her body temperature exceeded 100 degrees, she would start producing what's known as a "blood sweat" — a red-colored, glandular secretion that is a skin moisturizer, water repellent and antibiotic.

Fiona made history in utero, before she was born. The first-ever ultrasound image of a Nile hippopotamus fetus in early January 2017 confirmed what zookeepers had suspected since July 2016, when they observed BiBi and her male companion, Henry, breeding. A team of reproductive physiologists began performing weekly ultrasound exams in August of that year, but it wasn’t until early January that they determined Bibi was pregnant.

But she survived, and fans couldn’t get enough of videos showing Fiona taking her first pool plunge; celebrating the holidays as Gayla Peevey’s novelty hit as a 10-year-old, “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas,” played in the background; making Super Bowl predictions; and just delighting zoo visitors, including photobombing a couple’s engagement.

Fiona now weighs about 1,600 pounds. That’s a little more than half as much as the 3,000-pound Bibi. In captivity, she could live to be 50.

On Sunday, Fiona will get a special cake made of ingredients hippos crave, at a virtual birthday celebration.

The zoo is also hosting a Float4Fiona race: Hundreds of numbered apples will splash into Hippo Cove and float toward the finish line. The owner of the winning apple and three guests get a chance to meet Fiona.

“Since we can’t invite people to a big old party for Fiona this year, we will hold the race before the Zoo opens on her birthday, January 24, and share it live on Facebook so people everywhere can watch and hope their apple finishes first,” Cincinnati Zoo Director Thane Maynard said in a news release. “If you win and are not able to travel to meet Fiona in person, you can opt for a private video chat and custom-made hippo kiss painting.”

Instead of showering Fiona with gifts, the zoo asked the hippo’s fans to buy an apple for the race. Proceeds will go to the zoo’s emergency operating fund, which was established to keep the zoo solvent during 2020, when it closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Apples are a staple in zoo animals’ diets. Maynard says donations help the zoo cover the cost of about 15,000 pounds of apples consumed by the animals every year.

Prizes will be awarded for the first four apples to bob across the finish line. Second-, third- and fourth-place finishers will receive limited-edition Fiona kiss prints.

The race takes place at 9 a.m. Sunday, and the winners will be announced during the live Facebook stream. Because of pandemic restrictions, there will be no on-site access to Fiona's party.