Berlin zoo's baby hippo named 'Brötchen' part of food-naming trend

The newest arrival among Berlin's pygmy hippos has been given the name Brötchen, which is a bread roll in German, and is now trying out her hooves in the water, zoo director Andreas Knieriem said on Wednesday

"Naming animals after foods seems to be a popular internet trend right now," Knieriem said. "Strictly speaking, however, Berlin knew decades ago that small round snacks make excellent animal names: the female hippo Bulette was one of the big favourites at Berlin Zoo until 2005."

A bulette is the Berlin-version of a meatball.

Pygmy hippos with food-inspired names also exist in other countries. In Scotland, for example, there is Haggis, named after the Scottish speciality made from sheep offal or innards. She was born at the Edinburgh Zoo but has since moved to Kent.

In Thailand there is Moo Deng, which means something like "bouncing pig" and is also a well-known Thai street food dish consisting of roasted pork belly on rice with red sauce.

Brötchen was born on May 9 and now weighs 20 kilograms. She is now getting used to the water and making her first attempts at "swimming."

Pygmy hippos cannot swim in the classic sense. Instead, they push off the bottom and glide through the water. Brötchen's sister Toni now lives at a zoo in France.