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With so many eyes on Super Bowl LIV in Miami, there are bound to be some wacky predictions and prop bets surrounding the highly-anticipated matchup between the Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers.
On Thursday, the Cincinnati Zoo played home to one of the more interesting Super Bowl week traditions as their famous Nile hippopotamus, Fiona, was given an opportunity to pick the winner of the big game. Things went slightly off script, however, when the 1,200-pound hippo vomited “freshly chewed veggies” towards one of the logos posted on enrichment items.
Fiona the hippo attempts to make #SuperBowl pick, vomits on Kansas City: t.co/I69pNMvkd8
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The winner – it seems – will be the Chiefs. Read into it as you will.
As for her previous track record, Fiona has found her niche picking against the New England Patriots. In 2018, she correctly predicted the Philadephia Eagles upset victory over the Patriots, but took a step back last year when she took the Los Angeles Rams to bring down Bill Belichick, Tom Brady and team once again. This year’s strategy takes an entirely different angle.
According to WLWT Channel 5 in Cincinnati, the beloved hippo turned three years old last Friday and has an amazing survival story worth celebrating.
She now weighs well over a half ton. It’s a big deal for her, considering she weighed a fifth of what a normal baby hippo should weigh when she was born Jan. 24, 2017. Fiona weighed 29 pounds when she was born, which is about 25 pounds lighter than the lowest recorded birth weight for this species. The normal range is 55 to 120 pounds.
Through her amazing survival, Fiona became an ambassador for her species and a great example of why zoos exist. 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, which is Cincinnati Zoo’s mission.
For more information on Fiona’s story, check out the Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden website.
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