Well friends, here’s a potential antidote to your woes: a newborn pygmy hippo right here in the region. On Christmas Eve, the Metro Richmond Zoo in Virginia’s capital announced that it had recently welcomed a newborn pygmy hippo.

Step aside Moo Deng, there’s a new pygmy hippopotamus in town. Earlier this month, the Metro Richmond Zoo in Moseley, Virginia, welcomed a baby female pygmy hippo calf whose name will be decided by the public.

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.

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.

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

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