A RARE baby hippo born at a Hampshire zoo has finally been given a name.

More than 14,000 votes were received in a public ballot to christen Marwell Zoo’s newest arrival, a pygmy hippopotamus.

The winning name is Lola, which received 7,838 votes, 53 per cent of the total.

Lola’s keepers shortlisted four names – Lola, Kadina, Loko and Zimmi – after places in the pygmy hippo native home in west Africa.

Lola is a town in the forest region of Guinea.

Lola was born four weeks ago on November 13 as part of a conservation breeding programme to help save the species from extinction.

She lives with her big sister, Sirana, mum Wendy and dad in Marwell’s pygmy hippo house.

Claire Holmes, one of the keepers which looks after the pygmy hippos and helped choose the names, said: “I’m thrilled that so many people voted for Lola as it’s my favourite. It must have been a sign when Barry Manilow sang Copacabana with its opening line ‘Her name was Lola, she was a showgirl’ on Strictly Come Dancing last Sunday.”

With less than 3,000 in the wild, Lola is a vital addition to this rare and endangered species. Ongoing deforestation in their natural habitat, combined with civil unrest, presents significant threats to the population. Their numbers have steadily declined and the species is now listed as endangered.

It is estimated that the population is likely to continue to decline by 20 per cent over the course of the next 20 years.

Pygmy hippos are elusive animals living in the swamps of western Africa.

Pygmy hippos, and their larger cousins, the common hippopotamus, play an important part in maintaining the ecosystems of the African wetlands and the surrounding grasslands and forests.