Baby hippo at werribee » Werribee Open Range Zoo

Baby hippo at werribee
29-03-2008

Werribee zoo has had a new baby hippo. It was born yesterday night or early this morning.
I was at the zoo when they had Harry in with Primrose and they were mating.

29-03-2008

Yesterday morning. . .

29-03-2008

WOW Wonderful news

29-03-2008

cool about time that another was born. Are there details about gender etc

29-03-2008

No Details of sex at the moment

29-03-2008

Thank goodness some zoological institutions still exhibit and breed them in a natural group setting. It is undeservedly so an undervalued species these days in zoos globally. I wish more larger - even urban - zoos would go into the concept of providing hippo acco for groups of females with multiple males (2 or 3 bassins and islands ... perhaps with crocs in them too)!!!

And, and, and ... we are talking a species that is now also under threat of the axe in Africa. Currently, Hippopotamus amphibius is listed as Vulnerable ... (that is rather serious don't you think)! A long way off from the safe situation they were termed at just half a decade ago.

29-03-2008

Werribee hasn't got them in that sort of setting.
They have three pools.
One with an uncooperative and anti social female brandabella, one with the male harry and one with harrys mate and daughter and now the new baby.

30-03-2008

The herd at Werribee continues to grow, and from photos the hippo exhibit appears to be very natural and blends seamlessly into the background. Combined with the expansion plans, things are definitely looking up for Victoria's zoos. Increasing the number of animals to 1,000 will also help Melbourne Zoo and its potential plans to shift some of its collection out to Werribee.

31-03-2008

Sounds Werribee with all its open spaces and a new determined SA director is on the up. (PAT), is it not possible to exchange the uncooperative female for an unrelated female? Are the prospects for a transfer out of her any time realistic (the species is part of an ASMP as Australia is dealing with small populations)?

Similarly, I guess the daughter will move on to WPZ or another Australian collection. Are WPZ animals or others in any way related to the Werribee hippos or can they freely exchange unrelated individuals?

hippos at werribee and beyond..
31-03-2008

the situation with hippos isn't great but could be far worse. currently five zoos in the region have hippo.

auckland zoo
adelaide zoo
cairns wildlife safari reserve
werribee open-range zoo
western plains zoo

auckland are sitting on a breedable unrelated female but she can't be imported into australia.

adelaides pair are post-reproductive.

werribee and western plains have been running a program essentially by themselves so some of their animals are related.

and cairns has an trio unrelated to any other hippo in the region (but are related to eachother) but are not yet ARAZPA members. in addition rumours had them leasing some of their hippo to seaworld.

last time i checked, only one werribee/WPZ pairing was being suggested by the TAG but it appeared both zoos were being somewhat slack regarding shifting animals.

does anyone know why brindabella is considered unbreedable? she has had offspring in the past i'm sure, in fact, i thought it was primrose who was teh nasty one, killing brindabellas offspring?

31-03-2008

oh, and heres the an article and pic. (don't ya hate it when people don't post a link? )

Hip, hip hooray, a new calf | Herald Sun

31-03-2008

As patrick has pointed out, Auckland have a breedable unrelated female, but she can't be imported into Australia - AND some "genius" over there castrated the only male hippo in New Zealand! Whoever did it should have lost his job (and a couple of other things too!)

31-03-2008

i wonder if adelaides male is also castrated? (he may be, i seem to remember another reason why this old hippo isn't considered for breeding).

its a shame that hippo can't/won't be utilised for breeding. ii hate to see "dead-end" linages.

ideally, since she can't come to australia, we would sent auckland a "spare" male. but with so few hippo even here, i doubt that will happen anytime soon...

31-03-2008

According to an article about Harrys 30th birthday (the father of the recent calf) he came from Dubbo in the 80s so presumably he is related to their lot. I too wonder why Brindabella isn't being bred. Maybe she and Harry just don't get on.

31-03-2008

the herd is kept apart- the mother of latest calf, and her 5 yr old, presumable the new infant as well after time, the older female- is kept separate from the rest of herd, didn't she kill some other females calfs ?