Maple, the pygmy hippo, has been growing so quickly that the Toronto Zoo apparently needed a new way to help everyone understand just how big its tiny celebrity has become. A measuring tape would have worked, of course, but it wouldn’t have been nearly as fun. Instead, the zoo teamed up with President’s Choice and measured Maple using packages of The Decadent Chocolate Chunk Cookies. The result was an extremely important finding: Maple is now approximately six packages of cookies high. Suddenly, everyone has a much clearer understanding of the situation. Centimeters are fine, but cookies really put things into perspective.
Maple Is Officially Six Cookie Packages Tall
The Toronto Zoo shared the unusual size update after admitting that Maple is “growing faster than we can keep up with.” To demonstrate just how much its little pygmy hippo has grown, the zoo stacked packages of chocolate chunk cookies beside her for scale.
Maple came in at six packages high, which somehow feels much more informative than an ordinary measurement. It’s also an appropriately silly way to keep track of a baby hippo the zoo affectionately calls its “Tiny Tank.”
Six packages of cookies is information people can work with. Maple’s height in centimeters might be more precise, but it doesn’t immediately create an image of a rapidly growing baby hippo towering over a stack of chocolate chunk cookies.
The ‘Tiny Tank’ Isn’t Staying Tiny for Long
Maple was born at the Toronto Zoo on August 2, 2026, to mom Kindia and dad Harvey. She started trying to stand within about 15 minutes of birth and was confidently making her way around within just a few hours.
By the time the zoo announced her name less than three weeks later, Maple had already tripled her birth weight and reached 10.8 kilograms, or about 23 pounds. She was also beginning to grow teeth, explore the water and practice holding her breath while remaining close to Kindia.
That rapid growth isn’t unusual for her species. According to the Toronto Zoo, newborn pygmy hippos generally weigh between 4.5 and 6.5 kilograms and can gain roughly 300 to 600 grams per day, potentially doubling their birth weight within their first three weeks.
All of which explains why Maple’s adorable nickname, #TZTinyTank, is becoming increasingly accurate. The “tiny” part might eventually be debatable, but she seems to have the “tank” part covered.
Maple Has Been Winning People Over From the Beginning
Maple’s name was chosen as a nod to the country where she was born and the attention she received after her arrival. The Toronto Zoo has called her “Canada’s baby,” and she is the only pygmy hippo calf currently living in Canada.
Pygmy hippos are endangered, making every new calf important for the species. Maple, however, probably doesn’t know that she’s representing anything bigger than herself as she grows, explores and gives everyone another reason to check on the zoo’s Tiny Tank.
For anyone who has been following Maple since she was born, the cookie comparison offers a particularly adorable reminder of how much she’s changed in just a couple of months. The tiny newborn who was figuring out how to stand is now tall enough to require a respectable stack of snacks for scale.
Six Cookie Packages Today, but Probably Not for Long
Adult pygmy hippos are much smaller than their larger hippo relatives, but “pygmy” doesn’t mean they’ll stay tiny. The Toronto Zoo says adults can reach roughly 1.5 to 1.8 meters in length and weigh between 160 and 270 kilograms.
That means Maple still has plenty of growing ahead of her, which creates one obvious problem with the zoo’s new measuring system. If they’re going to keep tracking her height in cookie packages, somebody may need to start stocking up.
For now, the official count is easy enough to remember. Maple is six packages of chocolate chunk cookies high, and judging by how quickly the Tiny Tank has been growing, that record probably won’t stand for long.
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