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\u2013 credit, Tanganyika Wildlife Park, via TikTok<\/p>\n \u2013 credit, Tanganyika Wildlife Park, via TikTok<\/p>\n
At a zoo in Kansas, keepers were having trouble with a slippery, recalcitrant, baby pygmy hippopotamus who didn\u2019t want to get out of the pool.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s something they deal with every day, but in a viral video shared by the zoo, they demonstrate the best way to resolve the situation: calling his mother.<\/p>\n
It amassed 4.6 million views on TikTok, and thousands of comments pointing out that Posie, the mother hippo, arrives and gives her son Mars the \u201cmom stare.\u201d<\/p>\n
In the video, zookeepers are seen attempting to muscle Mars out of the pool so he can go inside a shelter in his enclosure for the night. The slippery devil continues to escape them and run back into the pool.<\/p>\n
Tanganyika Wildlife Park\u2019s staff explained to Today.com<\/a> that baby hippos are covered in a slimy secretion called \u201cblood sweat\u201d which forms a protective layer around the newborn\u2019s skin to shield it from the Sun\u2019s rays.<\/p>\n \u201cSo between his size and that secretion, it\u2019s really hard to pick him up and just carry him inside. So we found that we can call mom back out, or if mom is getting impatient because she wants to go inside, she\u2019ll turn around and give kind of small little grunts,\u201d said Curator of Research and Welfare, Dr. Samantha Russak.<\/p>\n Why might mom get impatient? Although Mars is nursing and so can eat when he wants, Posie eats in the early evening inside their shelter, so the longer that Mars stays in the pool, the longer Posie has to wait to eat.<\/p>\n BEST OF BABY ANIMALS: <\/strong><\/p>\n Whether it was third time she announced that \u201cdinner\u2019s ready,\u201d whether she gave him the \u201cmom stare\u201d as some in the comments suggested, whether she used all three of his names, or whether she started counting to three, the effect she has in the video is just so recognizable.<\/p>\n \u201cIt seems to be universal. Moms everywhere just have that power over babies. I saw someone comment and say, \u2018She must have used his full three names.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018mom stare\u2019 is universal in every species,\u201d one person wrote in the comment section.<\/p>\n WATCH the video below\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n @tanganyikawildlifepark<\/a> Better listen to mom! #babyhippo<\/a> #hippobaby<\/a> #marsthehippo<\/a> \u266c Funny Song – Funny Song Studio & Thomas Hewitt Jones & Sounds Reel<\/a> <\/p><\/blockquote>\n SHARE This Hilarious Hippo And His Menacing Mom With Your Friends\u2026\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n