hippopotamus

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South African Park Kills 350 Hippos, Buffalos Amid Drought

Meat from the killed animals will go to poor communities

(Newser) - Rangers in South Africa's biggest wildlife park are killing about 350 hippos and buffalos in an attempt to relieve the impact of a severe drought, the AP reports. The national parks service says the numbers of hippos and buffalos in Kruger National Park, about 7,500 and 47,000...

America&#39;s Oldest Hippo Dies
 America's Oldest Hippo Dies 

America's Oldest Hippo Dies

Denver Zoo's venerable Bertie was 58

(Newser) - The oldest hippo in America—and possibly the world—has celebrated his last Bertday. Bertie, a 58-year-old male, was euthanized at Denver Zoo yesterday after keepers noticed a steep decline in the aging animal's quality of life, the Denver Post reports. Hippos don't usually make it much past...

Surprise: Hippo on Birth Control Has Baby

Los Angeles Zoo is pretty happy with its new accident

(Newser) - The Los Angeles Zoo is celebrating its first birth of a hippopotamus in 26 years. It was a bit of surprise, too, because the mother was on birth control. Vets haven't determined the sex of the new hippo, but they say the baby appears to be doing well and...

Drug Lord&#39;s Hippos Breeding Out of Control

 Drug Lord's Hippos 
 Breeding Out of Control 
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Drug Lord's Hippos Breeding Out of Control

Pablo Escobar's foreign beasts terrifying fisherman, eating crops

(Newser) - Colombia is facing an overpopulation issue: a famed drug lord's herd of hippos keeps expanding. Pablo Escobar built himself a zoo in the 1980s, smuggling in a host of exotic animals, including one male and three female hippos. Now, 20 years after the drug boss's death, the hippos...

Man Swallowed by Hippo Lives to Tell Tale

Incredible story of survival in Zambia

(Newser) - "Time passes very slowly when you're in a hippo's mouth," says Paul Templer. He knows firsthand. Templer was attacked by a hippo years ago while paddling on a river in Zambia, where he worked as a tourist guide. "I seemed to be trapped in something...

South African Farmer Marius Els Killed by Pet Hippo
 Farmer Killed by Hippo 'Son' 

Farmer Killed by Hippo 'Son'

Dangerous pet turns on South African

(Newser) - They tried to tell Marius Els that a hippo couldn't be domesticated. Unfortunately for the South African farmer, they were right. The 40-year-old army major was killed by Humphrey, a 6-year-old "pet" hippo he considered one of the family, the Guardian reports. The 2,600-pound animal bit Els,...

Montenegro's Lone Hippo Goes on the Lam

Flooding lets 2-ton mammal elude her keepers

(Newser) - The only hippopotamus in Montenegro took advantage of flooding in the mountainous country to flee her zoo enclosure and camp out a mile away, zookeepers say. Nikica, a 2-ton female, swam away from her home south of Podgorica, the Adriatic country's capital, and is being aided and abetted by locals....

Hippo Hunt Divides Colombia
 Hippo Hunt Divides Colombia 

Hippo Hunt Divides Colombia

Animal rights groups decry containment plan

(Newser) - Pepe the Hippo has become a divisive figure in Colombia. When the animal escaped from his birthplace near Pablo Escobar’s pleasure palace, the government and some environmentalists organized an intense hunt that eventually ended when a team of more than a dozen soldiers killed the runaway beast. But some...

Hippo Sweat Key to Phat Sunscreen

Researchers aim to harness properties of hippo secretions for human use

(Newser) - Scientists puzzling over how hippos can loll around in the sun all day without getting burned believe they may have hit upon the next big thing in sunscreen, Discovery News reports. The animals secrete a substance that protects them from burns by scattering light. Researchers hope to someday recreate the...

No Room at the Zoo: Baby Hippo May Meet His Maker

Zookeepers deny little Farasi will be put down

(Newser) - Farasi, the hippopotamus calf that has dazzled Switzerland since his birth last November, needs a new home, fast. Otherwise, he could become animal chow for the Basel Zoo's carnivores, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 220-pound hippo, who beat out Roger Federer to be named 2008’s “Swiss of...

DC Zoo Evicting Hippo
 DC Zoo Evicting Hippo

DC Zoo Evicting Hippo

'Happy' must move to make place for elephants

(Newser) - The National Zoo is adding a new elephant sanctuary, reports the Washington Post, and the move is putting its sole Nile hippopotamus, Happy, out on the street in a year or so. The zoo will hold onto its pygmy hippos, but is more committed to Asian elephant programs. "You...

Berlin Zoo Accused of Selling Animals for Slaughter

Politician says director sold hippo, bear family

(Newser) - A German politician has filed a criminal complaint against the director of the Berlin Zoo, accusing him of selling animals for slaughter, Der Spiegel reports. The complaint cites examples of a hippopotamus and a family of bears allegedly sold in Belgium. Bernhard Blaszkiewitz vehemently denied the accusations, which he described...

Pygmy Hippos Found in Liberia
Pygmy Hippos Found in Liberia

Pygmy Hippos Found in Liberia

Rare mammal not wiped out by wars, deforestation

(Newser) - Rare pygmy hippos have been videotaped in the forests of Liberia, proving to a team of zoologists that the rare and elusive mammal has survived through two civil wars, illegal logging, and poaching thought to have wiped it out. Less than 3,000 pygmy hippos, which look like normal hippos...

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