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skoop102

Heap of Hippos

Heap of Hippos
skoop102, 7 May 2010
    • Tarsius
      Wow, very nice pictrure, Hippos enjoying their mudbath....You will never see that in any german zoo, I think, its unknown here, that hippos love mudbaths and do the same in nature. I think, some zoos have to learn a lot about the care of hippos.

      Can you tell me more, how the park is keeping his hippos ? How large is the landpart and the waterpool ? How large are the indoor facilities for how many hippos ?

      Thanks for the infos in advance.
    • Toddy
      What about ZOOM? They had a mudbath for their common hippopotami during my visit in July 2009.
    • PAT
      Is there 9 hippos in this photo? Are there more or is this all?

      It's nice to see them in a big group. :)
    • Pertinax
      I count eight here- it is the largest group in the UK though unfortunately I think they no longer breed, having no (adult) male.

      Despite this attractive-looking photo, the general setup is actually very poor for Hippos here- a crude indoor building not accessible for visitors, a very small land area of bare ground plus a mud wallow area they've created themselves and a large long narrow lake which is black with foul water(or it was when I last went). It certainly isn't a first class exhibit. Water to Land ratio about 30:1.
    • PAT
      I can still count 9. :)

      That's a shame that such a big group can't be given a better exhibit. They could be the star attraction of any zoo if given proper accomadation but I guess underwater viewing would be out of the question. ;)
    • Pertinax
      still 8 for me...I know when I visited I was shocked at the poor quality of this exhibit-absolutely foul stinking water, tiny little land area(no grazing etc) and substandard indoor area. This is a Safari Park and has the sort of low quality/cheap exhibits that go with being that.
    • johnstoni
      They really do have an opportunity to generate some increased revenue by investing in an underwater exhibit. They are fortunate to have such an impressive group. The original animals were the 3 or 4 (breeding pair + offspring) from Windsor when it closed. Windsor was very similar, with very little land and certainly no grazing, and a sort of concrete bunker with no public viewing for the indoor housing. However, Windsor's lake was more attractive and surrounded by trees. Windsor also mixed their hippos with flamingos and pelicans, although I'm not sure if any of these succumbed to hippo attacks, both were very small groups when I saw them.
    • Pertinax
      I doubt they'll ever do it though- too expensive?

      AFAIK there's no breeding male any more so no further increase.
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  • Category:
    West Midland Safari and Leisure Park
    Uploaded By:
    skoop102
    Date:
    7 May 2010
    View Count:
    1,628
    Comment Count:
    8