The excitement and global interest in Virginia’s newborn pygmy hippo comes after a female two-month-old pygmy hippo named Moo Deng from Thailand’s Khao Kheow Open Zoo launched an internet craze back in September.

Richmond got a hippopotamus for Christmas — and you can now go visit her. The big picture: The unnamed baby pygmy hippo was born at the Metro Richmond Zoo in December, and people are so obsessed with her that a poll to name her got 52,

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.

Zoo's baby pygmy hippo stealing hearts of Richmonders as naming poll continues

The Metro Richmond Zoo has had pygmy hippos since 2018, but it was Thailand’s Moo Deng that made the miniature, moist mammals household names. As I walk into the baby’s pen, she follows her mother Iris and slides into a fresh pool of water.

This has been the year of baby pygmy hippos thanks to social media. Now, we thought the babies were done arriving for the year, but the Metro Richmond Zoo