A hippopotamus was born in Copenhagen on June 7th, but drowned shortly after birth. The mother was stressing, trying to chase the other hippos into the water, and the baby tried to follow her into the deep pool. This is a very sad loss but the other female is also pregnant and is due to give birth any day. Hopefully it will go better this time.
Hope the second one will survive! The zookeepers will be more careful this time when they are around at time of birth but I don't know if they can do a lot...
Sorry for not updating you guys! The second baby was born on June 16th and is doing just fine. The mother is very protective and knows how to take care of her young.
Excellent news, its good that the mother is protective, although zoo's usually only have one present male other females have been known to kill calves due to jealously or disdain for the mother.
Thanks so much for this info, Toddy! I look forward to see the baby next time I visit the zoo, which I will do some of the next weekends. The web page of the zoo has just recently made a short mention of these news and did not mention the death of the first baby.
