--- title: Hungry Hippo Eats Watermelon for Gender Reveal Party description: Gender reveal parties can get pretty creative these days, but nothing was as inspired as this family's use of a hippo eating a watermelon. canonical: https://time.com/5683943/hippo-gender-reveal/ author: Rachel E. Greenspan article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2019-09-23T15:03:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T08:00:23.140Z og:title: Couple Enlists Hungry Hippo to Eat Organic Jello-Filled Watermelon for a Casual Baby Gender Reveal og:description: No hippos were harmed in the making of this video og:url: https://time.com/5683943/hippo-gender-reveal/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ab7c49ce034f62f/698a0356011682a44997e42b/hippo-gender-reveal.jpg?branch=production&width=1100&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1100 og:image:height: 619 og:image:alt: Hungry Hippo Eats Watermelon for Gender Reveal Party og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Couple Enlists Hungry Hippo to Eat Organic Jello-Filled Watermelon for a Casual Baby Gender Reveal twitter:description: No hippos were harmed in the making of this video twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ab7c49ce034f62f/698a0356011682a44997e42b/hippo-gender-reveal.jpg?branch=production&width=1100&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Couple Enlists 4,000 Pound Hippo to Eat Organic Jello-Filled Watermelon for a Casual Baby Gender Reveal > Sponsored content. 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The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Sep 23, 2019 3:03 PM UTC  Tank the Hippo at the Capital of Texas Zoo. Tank the Hippo at the Capital of Texas Zoo. Christina Jones Kabler by [Rachel E. Greenspan](https://time.com/author/rachel-e-greenspan/) ## Rachel E. Greenspan Sep 23, 2019 3:03 PM UTC [Gender reveal parties](https://time.com/5464363/border-patrol-wildfire-gender-reveal/) can get pretty [creative](https://time.com/5680154/cheese-lip-balm/) these days, but this family’s use of a [hippo](https://time.com/5487925/nasa-hippopotamus-asteroid/) eating a watermelon stands out. Posted by TikTok user @xyssa.jada, in a video of Bridgette and Jonathan Joseph’s baby gender reveal, a watermelon is tossed into a hippo’s mouth — the hippo bites down, and the blue color that flows out of it reveals that their baby may be a boy. Talk about hungry hungry hippos. Filmmaker Ana Bretón shared the video on Twitter on Sept. 21, and it has garnered 6.5 million views as of Monday morning. > [](https://twitter.com/missbreton/status/1175478765834711040) In subsequent tweets, Bretón shared some charming information about the family, and offered the chance for fans of the video to donate to the hippo, who resides at [The Capital of Texas Zoo](https://capitaloftexaszoo.org/). > [](https://twitter.com/missbreton/status/1175903135266508800) Tank the Hippo only eats the best foods, so the blue food exploding from the watermelon was organic blue Jell-O, Michael Hicks, the zoo’s director, told TIME. The 4,000-pound aptly-named animal eats watermelon and Jell-O cups as a weekly staple in his [diet](https://time.com/5667374/poor-diet-blindness-case-study/), Hicks says, so it only made sense to use his chomping skills for the Josephs’ special moment. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5683943/hippo-gender-reveal/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5683943/hippo-gender-reveal/"},"headline":"Couple Enlists 4,000 Pound Hippo to Eat Organic Jello-Filled Watermelon for a Casual Baby Gender Reveal","datePublished":"2019-09-23T15:03:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T08:00:23.140Z","description":"No hippos were harmed in the making of this video","url":"https://time.com/5683943/hippo-gender-reveal/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt2ab7c49ce034f62f/698a0356011682a44997e42b/hippo-gender-reveal.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Rachel E. 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