Metro Richmond Zoo recently celebrated the birth of a pygmy hippo and held an online naming contest that drew more than 116,000 votes from 165 countries.

Iris and “New Deng” (trademark pending) have been relocated to a private hay-filled enclosure for the time being, which will allow them to properly bond, zoo officials said. Eventually, the calf will move into the zoo’s publicly viewable indoor pool exhibit, where it will probably endear itself to adoring fans eager for more baby hippo content.

Poppy, the baby pygmy hippo, born to Iris and Corwin on December 9, 2024, from Virginia, stole the spotlight from Thailand's Moo Deng. Poppy is the third calf of Iris and Corwin in four years.