Canada’s Pygmy Hippo Population Just Went From 2 to 3

A female pygmy hippo calf was born on Sunday, Aug. 2, 2026, at the Toronto Zoo, the zoo announced three days later.¹² Her parents are 20-year-old Kindia and 31-year-old Harvey, and she has since been named Maple.¹⁴

That makes her Canada’s only pygmy hippo calf. The only other pygmy hippos in the country are her mother and father, so the national population is, in effect, one household.⁴⁵

Each birth matters because pygmy hippos are listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List.¹ The zoo puts the wild population at roughly 2,000 to 3,000. That is a rough estimate: the IUCN’s 2015 assessment puts it at about 2,000 to 2,500 and declining, and the higher figure dates to the early 1990s.¹⁷

A long Sunday

The zoo’s announcement is the only detailed account of the birth. It says staff noticed signs of labour in Kindia around 8:15 a.m. Tiny feet appeared around 12:15 p.m., and the calf arrived after about an hour and a half of active labour.¹

She began attempting to stand within about 15 minutes. Within a few hours she was confidently getting around, and she was seen nursing about four and a half hours after birth and on through the night, while staff watched on camera.¹

Mother and calf spent their first weeks behind the scenes in an area called Little Hippo Hollow, which is closed to guests, with staff monitoring them around the clock.¹²

The zoo was hopeful but careful in its announcement, noting that calf survival can be challenging for the species.¹ This is Kindia’s third calf. She raised a daughter, Penelope, in 2018.¹

A planned match

Maple was not a happy accident. Kindia and Harvey were introduced for eight days in January, which is all it took.¹

The pairing was part of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums’ Pygmy Hippo Species Survival Plan, a cooperative program that matches animals in human care based on their genetics, health and the long-term sustainability of the population.¹

“Welcoming a pygmy hippo calf is far more than a celebration of new life,” Toronto Zoo CEO Dolf DeJong said in the zoo’s announcement.¹

Pygmy hippos live in the forests and swamps of West Africa, where they are threatened by logging, mining, farming, settlement and hunting.¹² The zoo says it supports pygmy hippo research in Ivory Coast with partners including the research group IBREAM and several European zoos, through its Endangered Species Reserve Fund and a program called Bending the Curve.¹

Maple goes public

The name came on Aug. 21. At about three weeks old, Maple weighed 10.8 kilograms and was living entirely on milk.⁴

She made her public debut in September, at about six weeks old. Zoo members got the first look on a Monday, and everyone else could visit from the next day.⁵

By then the reviews were steady rather than dramatic, which is exactly what keepers hope for with a newborn of an endangered species.

“She’s doing exactly what we’d expect from a pygmy hippo calf,” Grant Furniss, the zoo’s director of wildlife operations, told TorontoToday.⁵