North American Common Hippopotamus Population

And again, how are you sure of this?

 

Wild Wilderness is now closed, and they were a private facility so without the business still running i'm not sure they could keep continue to care for him. There's also no off display ponds there that I am aware of; yes, it's a large property, but it was family owned, unlike zoos who have other off display options.

 

North American Common Hippopotamus Age Distribution:

No one has yet posted an age distribution on this thread, so now I've decided to make this post on how many hippos are what age in Canada and the United States (I would include Mexico, but it was extremely hard to find the data of most hippos in Mexican facilities). By the way, for those of you who don't seem to what it means, #:# means number of males to number of females. (e.g "1:3" means 1 male, 3 females) Any numbers that you notice are missing, means that no Common Hippos in North America are currently alive at that age. The order of this list is oldest to youngest. Let me know if I missed one or more individuals or gotten age or gender wrong.

62 - 1:0
53 - 0:1
51 - 0:1
50 - 0:1
49 - 1:0
48 - 0:1
47 - 0:1
44 - 0:1
41 - 1:0
38 - 0:3
37 - 0:1
36 - 0:2
35 - 0:1
34 - 0:1
33 - 0:2
32 - 1:1
31 - 0:2
30 - 1:1
29 - 0:3
28 - 0:1
27 - 1:1
26 - 2:1
25 - 0:2
24 - 0:1
23 - 0:6
22 - 4:1
21 - 1:2
20 - 2:0
19 - 1:4
17* - 0:1
16 - 1:2
14 - 1:0
12 - 1:0
10 - 1:0
8 - 0:1
7 - 1:2
5 - 2:2
4 - 1:0
3 - 0:1
2 - 0:1
1 - 1:2
0 - 1:0
Age Unknown - 0:1

Notes on this list:
- The age of 0:1 Wallace at DeYoung Family Zoo is unknown.
- *Haben at Greater Vancouver Zoo is female, though she was thought male until recently. I visited the zoo back in March (I have not mentioned this yet in this thread), and I heard a zookeeper say that they have two female hippos that are sisters. It even says that Haben is female on the zoo's website. Hippopotamus | Greater Vancouver Zoo Animals
- I am assuming that 1:0 Karlsruhe of Elmvale Jungle Zoo and 1:0 Frankie of Wild Wilderness Drive-Through Safari are both deceased.
- The current North American Common Hippopotamus Population is at 25:55
- Most of this data comes from hipposworld.de
- Ages as of December 31st, 2022.

 

For a future list, if names could be provided too that would be even better.

 

I plan to make an updated list of this in the new year, with names, birthdays, and possibly even the weights of some individuals.
To see the current names and birthdays list, see post #178 (Page 9).

 

It would be cool to see this list converted into a more visual graph or a bar chart.

 

A bar chart would be very nice. I'll leave @RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe to do it if they want, but I can always easily create one based on that info.

 

I ended up making it. It's interesting to see the gender distribution. Majority of hippos above age 23 are female, while the majority below age 24 are male. The population also has a female-skew overall with 54 females and 26 males total.


EDIT: the chart was reversed, I had to replace the image

 

Great job. It appears you missed some between 1 to 11 though or am I reading it wrong?

 

Haha yes, I realized right after posting the chart that the data for the X axis was in reverse order

I mirrored the X axis and edited my post, so now it is actually accurate, lol

 

That's alright. Thank you for the chart, it really demonstrates how much more females we have then males; which I guess is a good thing for holdings.

 

How many hippos have died in North America since 2000? I know the North American population has been around the 80 mark for a long time.

 

I'm not exactly sure. I guess, that could be counted; but it would take some looking back. If I was to throw out a rough estimate i'd say around 25.

 

Are there any transfers planned that might happen in 2023?

 

We don't know since zoos very rarely make transfer announcements this early. The hippos at Woodland Park have been set to be transferred out for a few years now so that might happen next year, though I heard WPZ is considering keeping them now so who knows.

 

If in fact they announce them at all before the transfer occurs - we only find out about most transfers once they happen.

Re. Woodlands hippos, they were reviewing the decision of phasing them out as obviously covid delayed/put a stop to the previous planned moves. I believe Lupe was going to ABQ but they had an unexpected calf born there?

 

Where did you hear that Woodland Park is now considering keeping their hippos?

 

See @Elena's post below from the Woodland Park news thread:

 

Yes, Lupe was supposed to go to ABQ and had a breeding recommendation with Moe but he and Karen had other plans Would've been nice if Lupe had a chance to breed but oh well.

 

Karen is fairly well represented now, so maybe it's best to now move Karen and her calf onto another facility and then pair Lupe with Moe (and possibly even Lily too if ABQ has the space).