The Werribee male (Harry) was put down due to health issues in 2014, aged 36. The Adelaide male (Brutus) is 52 years old. The males at TWPZ are Mana who is 16 years old and Happy who is 31 years old.
Untill a IRA is done for importing them its looking a little bleak for them, at the rate they are moving with the IRA foe the importing of Antelopes it will be years!
The male at Werribee was named Harry (not Henry) - but yes, he died about 3 years ago - very soon after the birth of Pansy - his final offspring. No males left at WORZ
At least the hippos at TWPZ are in a breeding situation, with female Cuddles have calves two years ago and again only a few months ago. At least it appears that they realise how lucky they are and are contuing to breed with her. I'm assuming both the males at Dubbo are related to the WORZ females and that's why neither of them have been sent there to fill the breeding male role. Can anyone confirm this? Also is the other adult female at Dubbo, Nile, not able to be bred from?
I've done some further digging into the situation and it appears that Mana has been the sire for Cuddles' calves. Does this mean Happy is unable to breed? Also in a Taronga news article linked in the 2014 TWPZ news thread it says that in the first 18 months of arriving at the zoo Cuddles had had an calf which died shortly after and then her first surviving calf at the zoo. So they are clearly eager to breed their hippos! (And understandably so!)
I've also done some research on Cuddles. Apparently she was bred against Studbook reccomedations at Tipperary Station in the early 2000s, before her transfer to Cairns Wildlife Safari, and then to Taronga Western Plains Zoo. As a relatively young female in a breeding situation, she will hopefully have many more calves. Females can apparently breed successfully up to 45 years. As @Riley mentioned, Cuddles has had one calf that didn't survive. She has also had two surviving calves: Kibibi (F) born 2014 and Kendi (F) born 2017. Prior to learning about Cuddles, I had wrongly assumed Nile was the only female at TWPZ. Is she still there and has she ever bred (successfully or unsuccessfully)? Mana is similar is age to Cuddles and maybe there is a reason he is her breeding partner as oppose to Happy. Perhaps Mana is more docile or perhaps he is more genetically valauble than Happy. Perhaps Nile and Cuddles don't get on and Mana doesn't tolerate Nile, dictating the pairings? Transferring one of the males at TWPZ (ideally Happy since Mana and Cuddles work as a pair) to WORZ seems like a logical move to me. If no new hippos can be imported, you have to work with what you can genetics wise I guess.
I've since found out that Happy sired three calves (none of which survived) in the late 1990s so he is a proven sire. It seems like common sense to transfer him to Werribee Open Range Zoo to breed with their all female herd and continue to breed the other male, Mana, with Cuddles at Taronga Western Plains Zoo.
The only reason I can think of is this identification of five sub species of the Common Hippopotamus (from Wikipedia): Great northern hippopotamus or Nile hippopotamus H. a. amphibius – (the nominate subspecies) which stretched from Egypt, where they are now extinct, south up the Nile River to Tanzania and Mozambique East African hippopotamus H. a. kiboko – in Kenya in the African Great Lakes region, and in Somalia in the Horn of Africa. Broader nasals and more hollowed interorbital region Cape hippopotamus or South African hippopotamus H. a. capensis – from Zambia to South Africa, most flattened skull of the subspecies West African hippopotamus or Tchad hippopotamus H. a. tschadensis – throughout Western Africa to, as the name suggests, Chad, slightly shorter and wider face, with prominent orbits Angola hippopotamus H. a. constrictus – in Angola, the southern Democratic Republic of Congo and Namibia, named for its deeper preorbital constriction Wikipedia goes on to say: "The suggested subspecies were never widely used or validated by field biologists." However Adelaide Zoo described their pair, Brutus and Suzie as Nile Hippopotamus (from which some of the Werribee Open Range Zoo Hippopotamus descend) while Auckland's last Hippopotamus descended from a wild caught male named Kabete, who was born in Kenya and was an East African Hippopotamus. Kabete is survived in the region by his great granddaughter Cuddles at Taronga Western Plains Zoo and her two female calves. This leads me to the theory the Australasian studbook keeper for Hippopotamus could be making decisions based on the hippos sub species (assuming at least the ones involved in breeding are purebred) because other regions recognise the different sub species (can anyone confirm?) or because they're anticipating to import new pure bred Hippopotamus within the reproductive lifetime of the young females in our region and they don't want to create hybrids which will be obsolete in 10-20 years. Just a theory???? This gives me hope that imports may be on the cards (after creating an import standard of course) as if there was no possibility, surely those managing the captive population of this species in our region would say stuff it (or something more zoological), let's breed any hippo with anything, regardless of subspecies or relation or we're not gonna have hippos when these ones die out. Like I say, this is just my interpretation, but I would be interested to hear other's opinion.
The reason Adelaide Zoo might call them "Nile hippos" is because that is just another standard name for the common hippo. You've created an imaginary scenario from nothing. Australasian zoos have never separated hippos based on subspecies, however valid or invalid they may be.
Well that's certainly good news. Many people would disagree, but I think separating the hippos in our region based on sub species unnecessarily complicates things, with no current ability to import there's bigger fish to fry with finding compatible mates for animals that aren't their immediate family. More importantly, I don't have to go through the hassle of getting my thread about the Common Hippopotamus of the Auckland Zoo renamed to something sub species specific. Do you know if any zoo/region identify their hippos based on subspecies @Chlidonias?
no I don't know that sorry, but I very much doubt that anywhere does (or at least not in respect to any breeding programme).
Okay, thanks. I was also wondering, if a zoo like Werribee Open Range Zoo creates an import standard to import Common Hippos, does that mean that the import standard is only available to WORZ or can other zoos independently import Common Hippos using the same import standard? If not I'm guessing, WORZ could just import on behalf of other institutions with the intention of transferring them once quarantine regulations had been satisfied?
once the legislation is in place for importation then any zoo can import that species - it isn't specific to one zoo. Of course not all zoos have quarantine facilities appropriate for importing animals - especially if the animal is as big as a hippo. Different states have different rules for what is allowed to be kept as well, so that can sometimes be a factor (Queensland in particular is quite difficult for zoos). Zoos do import co-operatively as well - it depends on the zoos and the species.
Thanks for that info @Chlidonias. Really hope an import standard can be worked out for the Common Hippopotamus in the near future. In the meantime, Taronga Western Plains Zoo should send Happy to Werribee Open Range Zoo in my opinion so he can breed with their two all female herds. Unless TWPZ are trying to breed Happy with Nile atm?
Don't expect any IRA to be done in the near future this could take some time at the rate these things are done in Australia, Most Hippos still in zoos in the region are aged with males in very short supply, I expect if/when more Hippos are allowed to be imported most will have pasted on to the big lake in the sky. The IRA for the importation of antelopes is still not completed and still it drags on and on, there are a number of zoos in the region wanting to import antelopes to add new blood lines to species kept here but its taking such a long time.
