--- title: Baby Hippo Born at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City: Video description: It's the first baby hippo born at Mexico's Chapultepec Zoo in 16 years canonical: https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/ author: Samantha Grossman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-24T11:00:29.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:08:04.215Z og:title: Baby Hippo Born at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City: Video og:description: It's the first baby hippo born at Mexico's Chapultepec Zoo in 16 years og:url: https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b85ef6d35572dfa/698686daf983e72b7b04ce4d/screen-shot-2014-03-23-at-4-40-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2014-03-23 at 4.40.48 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Baby Hippo Born at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City: Video twitter:description: It's the first baby hippo born at Mexico's Chapultepec Zoo in 16 years twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b85ef6d35572dfa/698686daf983e72b7b04ce4d/screen-shot-2014-03-23-at-4-40-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # This Rare Baby Hippo Is Very Adorable and Very Important by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 24, 2014 11:00 AM UTC  by [Samantha Grossman](https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/) ## Samantha Grossman Mar 24, 2014 11:00 AM UTC Everyone, say hello to this very adorable baby hippo. It’s the first of its species born at Mexico City’s Chapultepec Zoo in 16 years. Its mother will have to care for it and nurture it for nearly a year before zookeepers can determine its gender (Hence our use of “it” rather than “he” or “she.”) The public has been invited to choose a name for the hippo, but we’re feeling the following options: Thelonius or Claude for a boy, Theodora or Millie for a girl, or Taco for a more gender-neutral option. Baby Hippo Born at Chapultepec Zoo in Mexico City: Video ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/"},"headline":"This Rare Baby Hippo Is Very Adorable and Very Important","datePublished":"2014-03-24T11:00:29.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:08:04.215Z","description":"It's the first baby hippo born at Mexico's Chapultepec Zoo in 16 years","url":"https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/","keywords":["Newsfeed","animals","viral","Mexico","Zoo","nature","animal videos"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b85ef6d35572dfa/698686daf983e72b7b04ce4d/screen-shot-2014-03-23-at-4-40-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Samantha Grossman","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/samantha-grossman/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt8b85ef6d35572dfa/698686daf983e72b7b04ce4d/screen-shot-2014-03-23-at-4-40-48-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2014-03-23 at 4.40.48 PM","caption":"","creditText":"","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/34939/baby-hippo-mexico-zoo/","name":"This Rare Baby Hippo Is Very Adorable and Very Important"}}]}] ```