Fiona the baby hippo is swimming and diving like a champ

Fiona the baby hippo is making leaps, bounds and now, dives.

The premature hippopotamus was born at the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden four months ago.

The adorable creature has become world famous, even though the public has only seen her via photos and videos.

Soon, she’ll be ready for her public debut at the facility.

Fiona was born January 24, six weeks premature and weighing just 29lbs.

The average birth weight for a hippo is 55 to 100 pounds.

She required around-the-clock care. And she’s been thriving.

Most recently, she has started exploring the outdoor habitat after hours.

And, diving to depths of 6.5 feet in the indoor pools.

 

She is working her way through the bigger outdoor pools — to a depth of 9 feet.

All under the watchful eyes of scuba divers.

This is an underwater ballet at its best — with a 275-pound hippo as the star.

“There’s a lot to get used to in the great outdoors,” Christina Gorsuch, the zoo’s curator of mammals said in a statement. “She has to learn that sand is not food and that you can see faces on the other side of a strange, hard surface that you can’t get through (glass).”

She’s also slowly meeting her parents.

“Introductions to her parents are going well, but we have to take things slowly because of Fiona’s size,” Gorsuch added. “Bibi and Henry each weigh more than 3,000 pounds, and Fiona is at about 275 today. She’s a tough little hippo, but she needs to be able to handle an accidental flick of the head from the adults.”

 

Photos Cincinnati Zoo/YouTube

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