Hippo birthday to you! Cincinnati Zoo superstar hippo Fiona turns 8

Somehow, despite this site’s love for hippos of the pygmy variety, we’ve written very little about hippos of the extremely adorable full-sized variety. While they may be water-wading murder machines, they also look absolutely adorable chomping a watermelon in half, and for a while no hippo really captured the imagination and heart of the world like the Cincinnati Zoo’s Fiona. Well, it’s an exciting day for Fiona: it’s her 8th birthday! (Also I guess the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden recently reached 5 million followers on Facebook, but c’mon — we know who we’re all here for.)

According to the Cincinnati Zoo’s post on Twitter (allegedly called X), Fiona’s favorite things are “her care team, snacks, her bloat, naps, and playing.” Honestly, how relatable is that? Who amongst us wouldn’t list naps or snacks as one of their favorite things? And in case you’ve somehow missed watching Cincy’s own hometown hippo queen grow up, the aforementioned care team shared a video of highlights of her eight years . Watching her go from a playful baby hippo (watch her chomp the caretaker’s knee) to the queen we all know and love is quite a treat.

Plus, speaking of treats — as is only appropriate for the birthday girl, the zoo was kind enough to post a video of the treats she got for her birthday. Watch her completely destroy a series of watermelons (including one decorated with a carefully-carved number 8) with gusto! (You have to wonder if her baby brother Fritz wondered why Fiona was getting all the special attention.)

Happy birthday, Fiona, from all of us here at Hippo Watch Blizzard Watch! It’s hard to believe it was still 2017 when we welcomed you into the zoo and our hearts, and we look forward to many more years of joy in your life, you beautiful and fabulous hippo girl.

And for all of you readers who need some more hippo videos to get you through the week, the Cincinnati Zoo has you covered with plenty of videos of their whole hippo bloat.