Artist creates drawing for Fiona's 5th birthday from Timothy the hippo, Fiona's biggest admirer
Talk about love‚ Fiona the hippo received a special 5th birthday gift from a doting hippo who lives more than 1,100 miles away.
Timothy the hippo, who lives at the San Antonio Zoo, has been in love with Fiona for years, so it seems fitting that he would send her a cute gift for her 5th birthday, just to show how much he cares.
This year, Timothy and his friends at the San Antonio Zoo had an artist create a drawing of Timothy and Fiona for Fiona's birthday. The drawing shows Timothy and Fiona underwater holding hands with a birthday cake watermelon floating at the top of the water. The drawing says "Happy birthday Fiona! Love Timothy."
You can watch the process of the artist meeting Timothy and sketching the gift for Fiona in the video player above.
"How are you 5 already?! It seems like just yesterday I laid eyes on the most amazing, beautiful hippo in existence," Timothy "said" in a Facebook post to Fiona Monday.
"Since I know you’re a hippo of culture, I got with some of my friends to make you some very special art! I would’ve drawn it myself, but you know….no thumbs. I’m sure you can relate," the Facebook post continued. "Anyhoo, I hope you have the best 5th birthday ever! You deserve it!"
This is not the first gift Timothy has given Fiona on her birthday. In 2020, Fiona received an edible arrangement from Timothy and the San Antonio Zoo. Timothy had one of his buddies, country music star Aaron Watson, deliver her a special message through a video on Facebook.
Also, for Valentine's Day last year, Timothy purchased a small property of Scottish land in Fiona’s name, giving her the name Lady Fiona. The Cincinnati Caledonian Pipes and Drums Band helped in the celebration with song and dance.
What will Timothy get Fiona for Valentine's Day this year? We will have to wait and see.
Many have wondered if Timothy and Fiona will eventually be paired together in the future.
As Fiona enters her pre-teen years, her care team says she is still too young to be thinking about boys. When it comes to meeting a mate, her care team says she is not only too young but is also too small.
Born six weeks premature at the Cincinnati Zoo on Jan. 24, 2017, Fiona weighed only 29 pounds at birth — 25 pounds less than the lowest recorded birth weight for her species. She survived because of her animal care team's tireless efforts to save her and has inspired many to care about her species and wildlife.
Senior keeper and one of Fiona's primary caretakers, Jenna Wingate, said that while the hippos are typically reproductively mature around 5-7 years old, based on her health history and how she was born prematurely, they don't know entirely if Fiona is right on track or if she's a little behind or how that'll work for her.
"We don't know exactly what her status is reproductively. She is still small for her age and if it works out for her health-wise and it's important for the species survival program within ACA accredited zoos then Fiona will eventually be recommended to breed but we’re not in a hurry. Bibi's first calf was Fiona and she was 17 years old at that point so we are not in a rush by any means and time will tell," Wingate said.
But, when there does come a time, Wingate said Fiona won't be going anywhere.
"Will we bring a male here if Fiona is recommended to breed? I mean it's not 100 percent guaranteed but we have no intention of ever sending Fiona anywhere. We know that everyone would lose their minds we joke that there would be riots in the city. But based on the fact that we do have one of the best hippo facilities around and we have Fiona here, we would definitely make every accommodation to bring the male here," Wingate said.
So how else did Fiona celebrate her fifth birthday? She got to enjoy a birthday cake made of fruit.
The Cincinnati Zoo also hosted a virtual birthday party celebration.