Halloween came a few days early at the Cincinnati Zoo, and nobody celebrated quite like its most famous resident. To mark National Pumpkin Day on Monday, October 26, the zoo shared a video of Fiona the hippo and her family wading through the water with their enormous mouths wide open, waiting for a seasonal treat. One by one, whole pumpkins disappeared in just a few satisfying crunches, while delighted visitors watched from the other side of the glass.
Pumpkin feasts have become something of an autumn tradition at the zoo, and hippo fans look forward to them every year. There’s something irresistible about watching such massive animals tackle their snacks with such obvious delight. But behind the adorable crunching lies much more: an underdog story that won over the world, and a few surprising facts about one of nature’s most misunderstood animals.
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Fiona the hippo and her family devoured pumpkins in a viral video to celebrate National Pumpkin Day
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Halloween came a few days early at the Cincinnati Zoo, and nobody celebrated quite like its most famous resident. To mark National Pumpkin Day on Monday, October 26, the zoo shared a video of Fiona and her family wading through the water with their enormous mouths wide open, waiting for a seasonal treat.
One by one, whole pumpkins vanished in just a few satisfying crunches, while delighted visitors watched from the other side of the glass. “In honor of National Pumpkin Day, Bibi, Fiona, Tucker and Fritz enjoyed one of their favorite treats!” the zoo wrote on their Instagram. On Facebook, keepers urged fans to turn the sound up for some “serious pumpkin crunching,” adding that nobody was more excited than Tucker, for whom pumpkins are the ultimate favorite. Beyond being a tasty snack, the gourds also offer great enrichment, engaging the hippos’ senses and keeping them curious and active. For the millions who have followed Fiona since her earliest days, though, the clip is more than just adorable. It’s a joyful reminder of how far she has come.
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Hippos have one of the most powerful bites on land, yet they’re strict vegetarians who love their greens
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Watching a whole pumpkin disappear in a couple of crunches gives a small hint of just how powerful a hippo’s mouth really is. Hippos can open their jaws up to 150 degrees, creating a gape about four feet wide, and their bite is often estimated at around 1,800 pounds per square inch, among the strongest of any land mammal. Yet despite those enormous tusks and fearsome reputation, hippos are herbivores. In the wild, they leave the water at night to graze, pulling up short grasses with their muscular lips and eating up to 150 pounds in a single night. Their impressive teeth are mainly used for display and defense, not for eating. In zoos, a varied plant-based diet is just as important. Alongside plenty of hay, the Cincinnati Zoo’s hippos receive fresh produce that adds nutrients, variety and mental stimulation to their days. Everyone has their favorites: Bibi and Fiona adore lettuce and melons, Tucker can’t resist squash, and Fritz, according to his keepers, wants nothing to do with tomatoes or citrus.
Born six weeks early at just 29 pounds, Fiona was too small to nurse from her mother and needed round-the-clock care
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
That powerful bite and enormous appetite are a long way from where Fiona started. When she arrived on January 24, 2017, she was six weeks premature and weighed just 29 pounds. Most hippo calves are born at around 50 to 110 pounds. Even before birth, she made history as the first Nile hippo ever imaged by ultrasound in the womb, but her early days were a race against time. Hippo calves usually nurse underwater, closing their ears and nostrils as they dive to reach their mothers, but Fiona was too small and weak to stand or nurse from Bibi. So her care team stepped in day and night, bottle-feeding her a mix of Bibi’s milk and formula and enlisting specialists from Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. When teething made her refuse the bottle and she became dehydrated, keepers even gave her IV fluids. Their dedication paid off: on February 5, 2017, less than two weeks after her birth, the tiny calf took her first wobbly steps.
She had to learn to “swim” like a hippo, and as fans followed every milestone, she became an internet sensation
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
One of Fiona’s biggest early lessons was learning to move through water, which is trickier than it sounds. Despite spending most of their lives in rivers and lakes, hippos can’t actually swim. Their dense bones make them sink, so they walk, gallop and bounce along the bottom instead, holding their breath for up to five minutes at a time. The zoo shared every step of her progress online, from those first splashes to each pound gained, and people around the world followed along. By August 2017, she weighed 451 pounds, and by her first birthday she had passed 655. Her progress felt even more meaningful because it came during a difficult year for the family, as her father, Henry, passed away that fall. Before long, the little fighter had become a full-blown celebrity, starring in her own web series, The Fiona Show, and inspiring children’s books such as Saving Fiona by zoo director Thane Maynard and A Very Fiona Christmas by Richard Cowdrey. She appeared on a mural in downtown Cincinnati, was featured in the Cincinnati Ballet’s 2018 production of The Nutcracker and, for several years, made playful Super Bowl “predictions” by choosing between enrichment toys.
Now a healthy 2,500-pound adult with a long life ahead, Fiona recently celebrated her ninth birthday as part of a close-knit family
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden
Today, the once-fragile calf is thriving at around 2,500 pounds, edging closer to the roughly 3,000-pound average for adult female hippos. She shares her home with Bibi; Tucker, an adult male who came to Cincinnati from the San Francisco Zoo; and her half-brother, Fritz, born to Bibi and Tucker in August 2022, who turned her into a proud big sister. Together, they form what’s known as a “bloat,” one of several names for a group of hippos. And with hippos often living 40 years or more, Fiona has plenty of birthdays still to come. In January, she celebrated her ninth with a watermelon cake. Because it was too cold to party outdoors, her care team brought the celebration inside, and she devoured every last bite. Judging by this week’s pumpkin feast, her love of life, and of snacks, is as strong as ever.
