Amahle, the San Diego Zoo’s youngest river hippo, is growing rapidly—and she’s already showing her curious side, exploring her habitat and seeking out new areas to investigate when her mom, Funani, isn’t right by her side.

Researchers from San Diego Zoo Global and Embryo Plus South Africa performed an ovum pick-up (OPU) procedure on Nikita, a 9-year-old female southern white rhinoceros at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park’s Nikita Kahn Rhino Rescue Center, on March 6.

Following nationwide online voting this month, the San Diego Zoo’s new river hippo calf now has a name. The 20-day-old female will be called Amahle (pronounced ah-MA-shay), which means “beautiful one” in Zulu.

A new and important addition to the world’s river hippopotamus population arrived at the San Diego Zoo over the weekend. On Saturday (Feb. 8, 2020), female hippo Funani gave birth to her 13th calf.