In the News...
July 2007
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This month's stories:

Teenagers vie for Darwin Award – Yep, it was Over a Girl.

The Kansas City Zoo plans to press charges against two teenage boys who allegedly climbed into the hippo exhibit and threw rocks at the two-ton mammals, zoo officials said.

A 14-year-old witness spotted the boys Monday as the hippos were becoming angry and charging. The boys, whose identities were not released, survived the encounter without injuries. 

“There was a young lady there,” said Director Randy Wisthoff. “My impression is they were trying to show off for the young girl. It was a courting ritual.”

Wisthoff said zoo officials did not see what happened. According to a witness, the youths jumped into the hippo enclosure and threw rocks at the huge animals.  When security guards arrived, the boys were outside the hippo enclosure and tried to run away, but the guards caught them.

Wisthoff said none of the three paid admission to the zoo and had sneaked in.
 "We're going to prosecute whenever we can when people do stupid things," Wisthoff said. "Everything here is wild. They're behind fences for a reason. There's a reason you don't let people go in with hippos or elephants or tigers or giraffes.

The Kansas City Zoo has two female adult hippos, which were not harmed. Their enclosure consists of a water tank and a pathway to their holding barn. Contrary to what the witness told television news, the hippos cannot break through the walls of their enclosure, Wisthoff said.

Sources: CNEWS of Canada (online) 19 July 2007 and Kansas City Star (online) 17 July 2007
8/08/07

Hippo Visits St. Lucia Resort

St Lucia Estuary has a new kid on the block in the form of a hefty young female hippo that has been showing her face in the northern Zululand coastal resort over the past month and has become a new attraction in the area.

At the same time the conservation authorities have cautioned the public and visitors not to provoke the animal, said to be about three or four years old.
Wetland Park Authority spokesperson Pontso Pakkies said “Sandy,” as she has been named by a local resident, had been spotted grazing around a holiday home complex and walking around other parts of St Lucia.

Sandy has resisted attempts to capture and relocate her, prompting experts to ponder a number of "passive" capture techniques to move her to a more appropriate location.
Hippos are not easy to capture because they are known to run into the water and drown if darted. "The hippo has not shown any signs of aggression yet, but we are concerned about its safety and that of the public and are trying to come up with the best way to capture it," said a park official.

"We are warning the public not to approach the animal."
Ironically, in 1928, a hippo dubbed, “Huberta” by local residents got up from her home in St. Lucia and gained international media exposure.  She began walking across the continent and didn’t stop for 2½ years.  In that time, British and American newspapers picked up Huberta’s story and began publishing her routes.  She even visited parts of Africa that had never seen hippos. 

Huberta’s journey ended abruptly in 1931 when she stopped to snack on some crops and was shot by the irate sons of an illiterate farmer.  Each was fined £25.  The news was met around the world with sadness. Nobody knows why she did it, but by the end of her journey, the hippo ambassador had walked over 900 km (550 miles).

Sources: IOL of South Africa (online) 9 July 07 and News24 of South Africa (online) 22 July 07
08/08/07

Pygmy Hippo, Aldo, Born in Paris

A pygmy hippo named Aldo was born on 5 June at the Paris Zoo and is one of only a few dozen in Europe, bred in a special program to boost the rare species.

There are no more than 3,000 around the world, mostly concentrated in west African countries such as Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau or Liberia, said Juliane Villenain, a biologist at the zoo in the Bois de Vincennes, a park on Paris' eastern edge.

Pygmy hippopotamuses are unlike their bigger brethren in that they tend to be solitary.
The female takes care of the newborn by herself, as little Aldo's mother Anais did, Villenain said.
His older brothers, now 7 and 6 years old, live in Spain and Britain.

Aldo likes alfalfa, carrots, apples and all sorts of vegetables. When captive, pygmy hippos also enjoy grainy feed specially made for them.

The fact that Aldo is a male is good news to the European breeding program. Since the project started in the early 90s, there have been 46 males born and 66 females. Aldo is the 47th male of the species.

Aldo, born June 5, was kept away from the public eye immediately after his birth. He was scheduled to be on view to visitors beginning the afternoon of 4 July.

Sources: Fox News 28 June 07
08/08/07

June 07 Articles Archives August 07 Articles