Pygmy hippos in captivity

vogelcommando

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Strange enough this charismatic and endangered species still doesn't have its own thread so time to change that.
To give a recent overview of the captive status of the species I looked for the Studbook online and found this one from 2012 :

https://zooreach.org/ZOO_WILD_Activities/2013/Bulkmail/HippoStudbook2012.pdf

a little more recent ( but less informative ) is this PowerPoint presentation from 2015 :

http://files.angihip2017.com/200000130-65b0f66ab0/Beatrice-Steck-prezentace.pdf

and if you're intrested to keep the species yourself, this publication can be very usefull :

http://files.angihip2017.com/200000130-65b0f66ab0/Beatrice-Steck-prezentace.pdf

Hope this thread will be used to update the current status at zoos - births, deaths, transfers and other notable happenings at zoos.
Also for historical notes of this species there will be place in this thread.
 
Posted this just in the thread Historical notes from Burgers' Zoo [Burgers' Zoo] but guess it would be of intrest in this thread also :) :

Pygmy hippos at Burger's Zoo :

The beginning of keeping Pygmy hippo's started a little curious at Burger's. 1963 the Zoo had ordered a pair of Pygmy hippos and together with 6 other Pygmy hippos for other zoos the animals were brought by plain to the Netherlands. In the plain however one of the females gave birth to a young ! A male ( prob. not the father of the young ), the mother and the young were brought to Arnhem were the young was raised. In any case we can say that the first young was not born on the grounds of the zoo but in the air ;) !
dwergnijlpaard-arnhem-telegraaf-april-16-1963-png.450080

( newspaper-article Telegraaf April 16 1963 )

The animals did well at Burger's but evenso it took till 1968 before the first 'real' birth took place ( could have been even the dutch first breeding but not sure because I don't know the exact date of the birth and also Artis - Amsterdam bred the species the same year ). Only difference was that the young at Amsterdam got raised and the young at Arnhem was either born dead or died shortly after birth.
1970 another young was born and this one survaived and from then on regularly young were born at Burger's:
1972
1974
then a period I don''t have information about but
Dec. 1981 again a young ( female ) was born :

pygmy-hippo-wit-young-burgers-dec-1981-png.450081

( Photo copyright ANP )

Then again a period from which I have no information ( even the International ZooYear Books from this period don't mention births but it could be that Burger's didn't provided info to the IZYB ).
In the census of rare animal in this book it was in 1981 : 1.5 animals and 1990 : 2.3 animals.
How this change in number happened ( births - deaths -exchanges ) I don't know.
ZTL also provides only very little information:
till 2017
former breeding
then some information about the last kept animals :
2011 male Rambo sent to Plzen
2017 female Paula send to Hoyerswerda
Al together a quite long period in which Burger's was quite succesfull with the species and a pitty this species is not kept anymore at the zoo.
 
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World-first breeding of the Pygmy hippo

Carl Hagenbeck imported 1912 5 Pygmy hippos from Liberia had had hoped to sell them soon and for a lot of money to other German zoos. These had however dicided to boycot Hagenbeck because they didn't accept that a private zoo ( Hagenbecks zoo in Hamburg ) could be so succesfull and was a real threat for the other zoo already in Hamburg !
Therefor the animals were offered on the international market and in this way the Zoological Society of New York was able to obtain 3 of them for the enormous sum of $ 15.000 ( ! ) - what happened with the other 2 animals is unknown to me but its well possible that Hagenbeck kept them himself at the Tierpark because ZTL list Tierpark Hagenbeck as a holder from 1912 till 1934.
In July 1912 the 3 animals arrived in New York and they proofed to be 2 males and 1 female. All 3 animals were housed in the Elephant House, the largest male on its own in one, the remaining pair in anther enclosure.
The animals did very well and in 1916/1917 the first matings were seen. It took however a few more years before these mating had result and in the late morning of Dec. 23 1919 a male calf was born. Soon it was seen that the hind-legs were very weak and the calf ( a male ) wasn't able to stand-up. Therefor it also wasn't able to drink by the mother. It took more then 20 hours before the calf was seen drinking just because the mother had laid down but it still was very hard for the calf to reach the tits of the female. Then a goat was placed in the enclosure but the udder was to large for the calf and after this some goat-milk was given by bottle-feeding. At this time the calf was however already to weak and died at an age of 1 1/2 days in the evening of Dec. 24 1919.

first pygmy hippo born caprivity bronx 1920.png
Photo of the dead Pygmy hippo calf ( no copyrights anymore on this one )
 

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vogelcommando said:
World-first breeding of the Pygmy hippo

Carl Hagenbeck imported 1912 5 Pygmy hippos from Liberia had had hoped to sell them soon and for a lot of money to other German zoos. These had however dicided to boycot Hagenbeck because they didn't accept that a private zoo ( Hagenbecks zoo in Hamburg ) could be so succesfull and was a real threat for the other zoo already in Hamburg !
Therefor the animals were offered on the international market and in this way the Zoological Society of New York was able to obtain 3 of them for the enormous sum of $ 15.000 ( ! ) - what happened with the other 2 animals is unknown to me but its well possible that Hagenbeck kept them himself at the Tierpark because ZTL list Tierpark Hagenbeck as a holder from 1912 till 1934.
In July 1912 the 3 animals arrived in New York and they proofed to be 2 males and 1 female. All 3 animals were housed in the Elephant House, the largest male on its own in one, the remaining pair in anther enclosure.
The animals did very well and in 1916/1917 the first matings were seen. It took however a few more years before these mating had result and in the late morning of Dec. 23 1919 a male calf was born. Soon it was seen that the hind-legs were very weak and the calf ( a male ) wasn't able to stand-up. Therefor it also wasn't able to drink by the mother. It took more then 20 hours before the calf was seen drinking just because the mother had laid down but it still was very hard for the calf to reach the tits of the female. Then a goat was placed in the enclosure but the udder was to large for the calf and after this some goat-milk was given by bottle-feeding. At this time the calf was however already to weak and died at an age of 1 1/2 days in the evening of Dec. 24 1919.

View attachment 450106
Photo of the dead Pygmy hippo calf ( no copyrights anymore on this one )
Click to expand...
@vogelcommando , I have a question. Where do you find the old photos without copyright? I want to do kind of a history thread for a zoo but I wanted to know about your photos first.
 
vogelcommando said:
Carl Hagenbeck imported 1912 5 Pygmy hippos from Liberia... the Zoological Society of New York was able to obtain 3 of them for the enormous sum of $ 15.000 ( ! ) - what happened with the other 2 animals is unknown to me but its well possible that Hagenbeck kept them himself at the Tierpark because ZTL list Tierpark Hagenbeck as a holder from 1912 till 1934.
Click to expand...
According to the studbook, Hagenbeck's original five pygmy hippos arrived in Hamburg on 15th June 1912; the three that were sent to New York arrived at the Bronx Zoo on 9th July 1912.

Yes, Hagenbeck did retain the other two pygmy hippos from his original import; one short-lived individual died on 15th December 1912; the other died in Hamburg on 15th June 1934.

One of the three New York specimens was subsequently sent to London Zoo, arriving there on 10th November 1925. Between 1931 and 1937, this animal was sent to Whipsnade Zoo every summer, returning to London Zoo every autumn.

This ex-New York animal fathered several offspring in London: of these one born 10th May 1930, and one born 1st November 1930 were subsequently sent to Calcutta Zoo
 
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Posted this just in the thread Historical notes from Artis [Artis Royal Zoo] but I guess it would also be of intrest in this thread :

Pygmy hippos at Artis

In Juli 1927 Artis became the first zoo in the Netherlands to place a Pygmy hippo on display. It was not owned by the zoo ( they could't afford it ) and I don't know how long the animal stayed at Artis.

first-pygmy-hippo-in-the-neterlands-artis-1927-png.450223

First Pygmy hippo at Artis with keeper - 1927 ( no copyrights on the photo anymore )

1947 Artis second Pygmy hippo was obtained, a female which was born at Bazle.
1956 a male was obtained which was named Tobi
1963 a mother ( Alma ) and her daughter ( Irma ) came to Artis but the male showed no intrest in the females.
Therefor female Alma was send in Sept. 1967 to Basel to pair with a male at that zoo.
As soon as Alma was gone, Tobi started to mate with Irma.
Because also at Basel Zoo Alma didn't mate she was send back to Artisin the summer of 1968.
Then on Sept. 16 1968 Artis ( and prob. the Netherlands ) first Pygmy hippo was born to Irma.

artis-eerste-dwergnijlpaard-nederland-okt-1968-png.450224

Irma with calf. Oct 1968 ( Photo-credit ANP )

This calf was a female, named Carla and stayed till 1976 at Artis..
.Alma died 1970 but 1971 Irma gave birth to a male-calf
1972 and on a date between 1973 and 1975 2 more calves were born but both these calves were either stillborn or died shortly after birth.
April 1975 again a female-calf was born':

pygmee-hippo-female-calf-artis-april-1975-png.450225

Irma with female calf - April 1975 ( photo-credit ANP )

In 1976 Artis first-born Pygmy hippo returned to Africa and found a new home at the University-zoo of Jos - Nigeria.
In Jan. 1977 again a Artis-bred pair Lambiek and Irmgard ) was send to the same Zoo in Nigeria and to fill up the enclosure 2 months later again a calf was born.

dwergnijlpaard-met-jong-artis-maart-1977-png.450237

Irma with calf - March 1977 ( Photo-credit ANP )

Also the Pygmy hippos at Nigeria did well and already at the end of 1976/ beginning of 1977 the first calf ( a male ) was born there.
After the 1977-birth I didn't find any records of breeding anymore and in 1988 Artis stopped completly with keeping the Pygmy hippo.
 
vogelcommando said:
Strange enough this charismatic and endangered species still doesn't have its own thread so time to change that.
To give a recent overview of the captive status of the species I looked for the Studbook online and found this one from 2012 :

https://zooreach.org/ZOO_WILD_Activities/2013/Bulkmail/HippoStudbook2012.pdf

a little more recent ( but less informative ) is this PowerPoint presentation from 2015 :

http://files.angihip2017.com/200000130-65b0f66ab0/Beatrice-Steck-prezentace.pdf

and if you're intrested to keep the species yourself, this publication can be very usefull :

http://files.angihip2017.com/200000130-65b0f66ab0/Beatrice-Steck-prezentace.pdf

Hope this thread will be used to update the current status at zoos - births, deaths, transfers and other notable happenings at zoos.
Also for historical notes of this species there will be place in this thread.
Click to expand...

I checked out the PowerPoint you linked, that was a neat little window into the international population. I'm a bit surprised that as of 2015, the AZA only had 17 facilities with pygmy hippos, and that there's difficult finding holders in the EAZA.

Are the pygmy hippos just losing out to the larger, more impressive common hippo? Maintaining a healthy ex-situ population of the latter is important but at a glance many zoos seem to maintain old (or even new-ish) subpar common hippo exhibits when they might be better served housing pygmy hippos. Both San Francisco and LA (to pick on some of my nearby institutions) have small, older exhibits that house a single male and a mother-daughter pair, respectively. Fresno has a fully funded hippo exhibit in the works that seems intended for breeding in terms of size, despite the zoo's acreage (less than half that of SF and LA).

And yet the only place in California that holds pygmy hippos is San Diego. :rolleyes: They're cute and have a lot of public appeal, they're smaller and far less gregarious than common hippos, are endangered, the list goes on. Fingers crossed some more zoos worldwide opt to exhibit them.
 
vogelcommando said:
Also for historical notes of this species there will be place in this thread.
Click to expand...
Re historical notes on pygmy hippos:-

It is well known that 147 years ago, in March 1873, Dublin Zoo became the first zoo to acquire a pygmy hippo. Sadly the unfortunate animal died of pneumonia shortly after its arrival in Dublin.

There was then a wait of nearly forty years, until Hagenbeck imported five specimens in 1912, before any more zoos acquired pygmy hippos.

It's worth noting that the original Dublin Zoo pygmy hippo can still be seen in the Zoology Museum, Trinity College, Dublin.
 
RatioTile said:
In Asia, six zoos in Japan have pygmy hippos; I have seen them at three. Taipei Zoo breeds them (I've seen calves before), and Singapore Zoo has several in a nice pool. Not sure about elsewhere in Asia.
Click to expand...
Chimelong safari park have them, and I believe they're the only holder in China. What 3 zoo have you seen them in Japan? Ueno, Nagoya Higashiyama and what?
 
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