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It’s a Boy! Athens Zoo Welcomes Birth of Rare Pygmy Hippo 

A newborn pygmy hippo is seen in his pen, at the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, February 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A newborn pygmy hippo is seen in his pen, at the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, February 27, 2024. (Reuters)
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It’s a Boy! Athens Zoo Welcomes Birth of Rare Pygmy Hippo 

A newborn pygmy hippo is seen in his pen, at the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, February 27, 2024. (Reuters)
A newborn pygmy hippo is seen in his pen, at the Attica Zoological Park near Athens, Greece, February 27, 2024. (Reuters)

A rare and endangered pygmy hippopotamus has been born in Athens' Attica Zoological Park for the first time in 10 years, delighting conservationists.

A lack of male pygmy hippos in captivity had complicated breeding efforts, so zoo staff were "absolutely thrilled" the baby was a boy, Noi Psaroudaki, the zoo's wildlife veterinarian, told Reuters.

"This is the first birth in the zoo in 2024, and what a birth!" Psaroudaki said.

"Every captive birth of pygmy hippos is extremely important. We're very happy to see this baby grow into a healthy adult hippo, and hopefully one day reproduce," she said.

Pygmy hippos are native to swamps and rainforests in western Africa. They are listed as an endangered species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and it is estimated only about 2,000-2,500 still live in the wild.

Weighing 7 kg (15.4 pounds), the male calf - whose name will go to a vote - was born on Feb. 19 and joins his parents Lizzie and Jamal as the only pygmy hippos at the zoo.

The hippo, solitary and nocturnal by nature, will remain with its mother for a couple of months until it ventures into the outdoors enclosure.

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Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
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Eggs Are Less Likely to Crack When Dropped on Their Side, According to Science

Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)
Fresh eggs are delivered along with chickens and a portable chicken coop to a client’s house as part of the "Rent The Chicken" service in La Crescenta, California, on April 21, 2025. (AFP)

Eggs are less likely to crack when they fall on their side, according to experiments with over 200 eggs.

What does this mean for the best way to crack an egg for breakfast? Not much, since a break around the middle is the best way to get the golden yolk and runny whites to ooze out.

But scientists said it could help with hard-boiling eggs in a pot: Dropping eggs in horizontally may be less likely to cause a stray crack that can unleash the egg's insides in a puffy, cloudy mess.

It's commonly thought that eggs are strongest at their ends — after all, it's how they're packaged in the carton. The thinking is that the arc-shaped bottom of an egg redirects the force and softens the blow of impact.

But when scientists squeezed eggs in both directions during a compression test, they cracked under the same amount of force.

"The fun started when we thought we would get one result and then we saw another," said Hudson Borja da Rocha with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who helped run the experiments.

The researchers also ran simulations and dropped eggs horizontally and vertically from three short heights up to 0.4 inches (10 millimeters).

The egg result? The ones dropped horizontally cracked less.

"The common sense is that the egg in the vertical direction is stronger than if you lay the egg down. But they proved that's not the case," said materials scientist Marc Meyers with the University of California, San Diego who was not involved with the new study.

Scientists found that the egg's equator was more flexible and absorbed more of the energy of the fall before cracking. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Communications Physics.

Eggs are also usually nestled top-down into homemade contraptions for egg drop challenges as part of school STEM projects, which partially inspired the new study. It's not yet clear whether the new results will help protect these vulnerable eggs, which are dropped at much loftier heights.

It's a bit counterintuitive that the oblong side of an egg could hold up better against a tumble, said study co-author Tal Cohen with Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Countless broken eggs show "the courage to go and challenge these very common, accepted notions," Cohen said.