Photo Provided Shown here is the new red river hoglet born Aug. 8 at Oglebay Good Zoo. The zoo is holding a naming contest.

WHEELING — Oglebay’s Good Zoo is celebrating the birth of a new baby animal — a red river hoglet.

The hog was born Aug. 8 and weighed in at more than 800 grams, or about 1.7 pounds. The parents are red river hogs Poe and Raven. The zoo has labeled the birth as a “surprise” because though they were trying to breed the animals, there were no signs of Raven being pregnant before the hoglet was born.

“We came in the next morning and there was a baby there,” said Joe Greathouse, zoo director.

The baby was small and non-detectable weight-wise during the gestation period. Also red river hogs do not like to undergo ultrasounds, Greathouse added. The mom also did not produce udders during her pregnancy. She did not start producing milk until a few days after the baby was born, so zoo staff had to bottle feed the hoglet in the beginning.

“We’re thrilled. … Hopefully, guests can see her in a couple weeks,” he said, adding the animal needs to get its first round of vaccinations first.

Now the zoo is looking for help in naming the new hoglet. Voting can be done at oglebay.doubleknot.com/…/red-river-hog…/86402. The name choices include Rowena, Lenore, Annabelle Lee and Koka, which is short for Kokamwisa, which is “surprise” in the Lingala language.

Voting is open until Sunday.

Greathouse noted he will be happy with whatever name ends up being the winner.

He added the zoo has breeding programs for the majority of the animals it cares for, but many animals grow in pouches, such as wallabies and armadillos, and by the time they appear in the public, they do not look like babies.

The Good Zoo is a member of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums and is the only zoo accredited by this organization in the state of West Virginia. Greathouse said there are only about 200 or 10% of zoos in the country that are accredited by this organization.

“We are the third-smallest accredited zoo,” he added.

According to Good Zoo information, red river hogs are found in Africa and are the smallest species of pig found on the continent.

Though considered the smallest, the hogs can reach 100 to 285 pounds in adulthood. The pigs get their name from their red coats and their love of swimming in the rivers there.

“Males are significantly larger than females, and possess warts on their snouts to protect themselves from the tusks of other male hogs during fights for dominance,” according to the zoo.

“They mark their territory through scent and tusk scraping. Their large snout is well-equipped for burrowing for food.”

The hogs enjoy foraging in the woods for roots, insects and fruits.

“But they will also eat reptiles, carrion, and even small mammals. Red river hogs are social animals, living in groups as large as 12-20,” the zoo notes.

The baby’s parents can often be seen using their snouts to dig for food, “and leaving muddy nose prints on the windows afterward” at the zoo.