Common Hippo Exhibit at Cologne, 07/09/10

Common Hippo Exhibit at Cologne, 07/09/10
05-01-2011

In the HippoDom - also home to free-flying birds and bats, Nile Crocodiles and a mixed exhibit for Rufous Elephant Shrews and Red-legged Sun Squirrel.

05-01-2011

Thank you for posting these excellent photos of the HippoDom. I was at Cologne in the Spring of 2010, and just missed the opening of this house. I'd be interested to hear your verdict on it? From the photos here, I think it looks rather excellent - even if there is a utilitarian quality to the architecture (those exposed pipes in this picture, for example).

05-01-2011

A number of flaws in the execution of this interesting exhibit surprised me: terrible water quality in the hippo pool, a waterline set too high to allow any views above water, bee-eaters and hammerkops choosing to perch on the exposed pipes rather than on the branches of the rather crudely-rendered "baobabs," and a discordant "fossil Supercroc" set into the unconvincing mudbanks. I also noted some huge gouges in the acrylic viewing windows from hippos tusks!

The connected outdoor exhibit shared with sitatunga was okay, but not a major improvement over its predecessor in West Berlin.

05-01-2011

are the holes in the bank for bee-eaters to nest in?

05-01-2011

I would agree that Berlin is the superior hippo exhibit, but there didn't seem to be any water-quality issues at Cologne when I was there.

One odd thing is that the hippos have no outdoor pool, which is another way Berlin scores over Cologne, but I think that's mostly a factor of space as adding a pool on the same footprint would have reduced the available outdoor grassed area to very little indeed.

Basically, it's a very good house, but not my very favourite.

05-01-2011

I presume so - Cologne has two huge groups of Northern Carmine Bee-eaters so seem to know what they're doing with them.

05-01-2011

No worries! Suddenly occurred to me I never finished this trip off!

As above, I rather like it, but you have to be able to ignore the pipes etc. Not quite a Berlin Hippo house, but very good.

06-01-2011

how many hippos total? male or female? names?

06-01-2011

Are they permanently always inside?

06-01-2011

@ Fossa dude

06-01-2011

Thanxs KCZooFan. (looks like 2 weeks off of school made me not read things :P)

06-01-2011

I should emphasise that although there is no outdoor pool, there is an outdoor grass paddock for the hippos, so they are not permanently inside.

06-01-2011

@Maguari - thanxs man. So is there a reason for the hippos being outside maybe like to cold in winter or...

06-01-2011

Thanks for clarifying Maguari, kind of an odd idea though. Looks like a very nice indoor exhibit though.

06-01-2011

It looks nice. But unfortuantely, in the night the hippos don't have access to any water, they will put in boxes behind the scenes. Only because the filtration sytsem isn't good enough to get the water clean, if the hippos are in the water all tje night...The outdoor exhibit is very small for such a new one, and the hippos don't have a pool,or mudhole, altough, there is qa bi g pond directly to the exhibit,....But t he zoo wants the hippo in the water only inside, so the visitors can see them underwater....Good Example, zoos are build for people, not for animals.