Rare Pygmy Hippopotamus Born In Paris

Aldo, a three-week-old pygmy hippopotamus, (Choeropsis liberiensis) eats at the Vincennes zoo, outside Paris, Tuesday, June 26, 2007. Aldo looks, eats and lazes like a hippopotamus but he is only about as big as a human baby, at 21 inches. This pygmy hippopotamus, born earlier this month, is one of only a few dozen in Europe, bred in a special program to boost the rare species.

Aldo looks, eats and lazes like a hippopotamus — but he's only about as big as a human baby, at 21 inches. The pygmy hippo, born this month at the Paris Zoo, is one of only a few dozen in Europe, bred in a special program to boost the rare species.
There are no more than 3,000 around the world, mostly concentrated in west African countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau or Liberia, said Juliane Villenain, a biologist at the zoo in the Bois de Vincennes, a park on Paris' eastern edge.