{"id":37659,"date":"2026-06-16T18:17:18","date_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:17:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/37659\/"},"modified":"2026-06-16T18:17:18","modified_gmt":"2026-06-16T18:17:18","slug":"hallo-brotchen-berlin-zoo-welcomes-baby-pygmy-hippo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/37659\/","title":{"rendered":"Hallo Br\u00f6tchen! Berlin Zoo welcomes baby pygmy hippo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Meet Br\u00f6tchen. The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) was born on May 9th at Germany\u2019s Zoo Berlin, weighing in at 13 pounds. \u201cBr\u00f6tchen\u201d means \u201cbreadroll,\u201d in German, and the zoo\u2019s new member is rapidly becoming everyone\u2019s favorite carb. The baby girl is making headlines and gracing the zoo\u2019s Facebook cover photo. What\u2019s more, its name was revealed in a social media post<\/a> on June 10 that has now accumulated over 6,000 likes.<\/p>\n

A number of Br\u00f6tchen\u2019s internet appearances involve water. In fact, \u201cwater plays an incredibly important role for pygmy hippos,\u201d the zoo explains<\/a>. \u201cBathing helps care for their sensitive skin while also allowing the little one to slowly and comfortably get used to the water.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to the zoo, pygmy hippo<\/a> skin secretes a substance that keeps the hippos from drying out. It features antibacterial qualities and also acts as a sunscreen. And for those who think the keeper in the video<\/a> is washing Br\u00f6tchen with soap, think again\u2014water makes this secretion foam.<\/p>\n

\"a<\/p>\n

Br\u00f6tchen with her mother Debbie. Image: Berlin Zoo. Hendrik Gergen<\/p>\n

These mammals<\/a> stand at 2.5 to 3 feet at the shoulder, are 4.5 to 6 feet long, and weigh 400 to 600 pounds once fully grown. Br\u00f6tchen\u2019s birth is also welcome news from a conservation standpoint. The IUCN Red List classifies Pygmy hippos as endangered<\/a>, with a decreasing population and only 2,000 to 2,499 adult individuals left. The species is nocturnal<\/a> and lives in areas of West Africa, and is impacted<\/a> by mining, deforestation, and habitat destruction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile Br\u00f6tchen is now exploring her outdoor enclosure every day with her mother Debbie, her endangered relatives in West Africa are fighting for survival: fewer than 2,500 adult pygmy hippos remain in their natural habitat,\u201d the zoo wrote when announcing Br\u00f6tchen\u2019s name. \u201cProtecting them is therefore more important than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Meet Br\u00f6tchen. The pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis) was born on May 9th at Germany\u2019s Zoo Berlin, weighing in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":37660,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[18,31516,33758,33759],"class_list":["post-37659","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-berlin","tag-berlin","tag-brotchen","tag-pygmy-hippos","tag-zoo-berlin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37659","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37659"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37659\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37659"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37659"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/germany\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37659"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}