Baby hippo at werribee » Werribee Open Range Zoo

31-03-2008

Adelaide's hippos are quite old - they were purchased as adults from the old Ashton's Lion Safari in Bacchus Marsh, Victoria in 1975. The female was in calf at the time. She gave birth to young in 1975,1976 and 1977 but all three calves died in infancy.

01-04-2008

What exactly is the rationale behind the impossibility to export the unrelated female to Australia?

Which also brings me to why Cairns as an ARAZPA member zoo is contemplating sending hippos elsewhere, whereas they are desperately needed to even maintain a hippo presence in Australian zoos? Why can not Cairns be persuaded to trade some individuals, perhaps even several?

01-04-2008

that hippos are artiodactyls. and that the import of such is banned into australia. come' on jelle, surely you know that by now, we have been mentioning it for years...

cairns is not currently an ARAZPA member zoo.

well if they do go to seaworld (that australia's seaworld) which is an ARAZPA member, hopefully that will open up a doorway to distribute genetics between the two lineages. however, we're told the new owner of CWSR does want to join the regional association and so i have little doubt that when that happens, they will follow recommendations that will see vital pygmy and common hippo transfers between the zoos.

01-04-2008

Yup, hippos are artiodactyls.
But have you ever heard of a hippo transmitting disease to sheep?
Australia's laws are unrealistically restrictive.

01-04-2008

Ara, there are numerous documented cases of exotic animal diseases being transmitted or going unnoticed for years....
in another thread you said you are a realist. how realistic is it, then, to potentially jeapordise a valuable agricultural industry just to import some new zoo animals?
you say our biosecurity/quarantine laws are too tight? i say they arent tight enough. the recent horse flu is a good example of our strategy's shortcomings. the import of birds into australia in the 1990s saw two new disease strains enter the country and remain undetected.
my point is that im prepared to forgoe the risk of disease and put up with fewer zoo animals then the alternative. small as the risk is, particularly with hundreds of thousands of people entering the country every year, and acting as possible disease vectors, i dont think its a gambl worth taking. not yet anyway.

02-04-2008

1. I am surprised. I checked the ARAZPA site before I wrote my queries and Cairns was actually on that very list. I looked again just now and the Cairns site is the Cairns Tropical Zoo. So forgive me, for being wrong here!

2. CWSR joining ARAZPA would be the way to go! I find the suggestion to move pygmy and common hippos to Sea World a little bit outlandish though. Do the CWSR hippos have an inate love of seawater or what ..?

02-04-2008

oh ya know, i guess its just seaworld desperate for another animal attraction. it was only common hippo, not pygmies that were mentioned in article i read.

i would probably be more inclined to guess that both werribee and dubbo will acquire a new breeding male from cairns and that in return they will send a bull to mate the cairns female. that should have things covered for a few decades with this long-lived species..

prior to developing the new "hippo river", werribee kept its hippo in a drive-through paddock with two large (separated) dams. these enclosures still exist, now diverted off the tour. so the zoo has plenty of room to expand its hippo herd long term.

hopefully the new calf is female as there are two males at cairns.

02-04-2008

Ah nope, Cairns has 2 female common hippos and one male and pygmys are 2 males and 1 female

02-04-2008

oh yeah, i think you told me that already.... i read the incorrect 2.1 back on the old website (seems david gill didn't even know what he had!) and it just stuck. think i've asked you this before bigcat, but if you don't mind, is that a pair and a female offspring?

02-04-2008

glyn, I know you're right, mate, about our quarantine laws;and the recent equine 'flu problems confirms it.

I reckon though that if Australia had a multi-million dollar hippo racing industry, hippos would be coming in and going out of the country with no restrictions!

02-04-2008

@patrick
2 adult females and the male is the offspring of the older of the 2 females he is still young only 6ish

02-04-2008

ooooh - what are the ages of the females then? both still breeding age i hope...

02-04-2008

Forgive us for counting ...! Is it just the 2 of us or yet 3 again? (I assume you are totally right, though this post is a little confusing)

In the earlier post you mentioned they have just 0.2 common hippo and 1.1 pygmy hippo at Cairns. In your latter post you say he is still youngish at 6 (and very much alive and kicking I suppose).

But, if he has done a runner which is entirely likely (lol), what on earth has happened to the little guy? Is he alive and so where for goodness sake is yours truly then?

Appreciate the added info!

02-04-2008

jelle, i think you have misread bigcats post.

CWSR have 2.1 pygmy hippo and 1.2 common hippo.

regarding the common hippo one female is the mother of the male.

in the case of the pygmy hippo, one male is the offspring of the other two.

02-04-2008

Yep as always Patrick is on the ball and correct!