Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden Cincinnati Zoo Hippos

Neil chace said:
To be fair, we'll have to wait and see on the future part- we don't know how big Fiona is going to get. If she stays her current size, absolutely she shouldn't, but if she grows to be closer to the full-grown size she should be, I don't know why it wouldn't be advisable to breed her in the future.
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Fiona is almost 6 years old now and still is very small. I think the chances of her getting close to normal size is unlikely.

Neil chace said:
Irregardless, it's concerning that the zoo advertised Tucker trying to breed Fiona- as it makes you wonder what plans they have in store for them, even if Fiona is contracepted at the moment.
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Worth bearing in mind Fritz was conceived while Bibi was on contraception - supposedly anyways. The question is when will Cincy's management come to their senses, before or after they destroy the zoo's cash cow... The exhibit is sized for two, it now has four and may go to five...
 
Great Argus said:
Worth bearing in mind Fritz was conceived while Bibi was on contraception - supposedly anyways. The question is when will Cincy's management come to their senses, before or after they destroy the zoo's cash cow... The exhibit is sized for two, it now has four and may go to five...
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Contraception has proven ineffective for hippos at other times in the past as well. I know there was a case of this in 2014 at the LA zoo, where a hippo became pregnant and gave birth despite being on contraception back then: https://phys.org/news/2014-11-los-angeles-zoo-hippo-birth.html
 
ZooElephantsMan said:
Contraception has proven ineffective for hippos at other times in the past as well. I know there was a case of this in 2014 at the LA zoo, where a hippo became pregnant and gave birth despite being on contraception back then: https://phys.org/news/2014-11-los-angeles-zoo-hippo-birth.html
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Well and Fiona was also conceived while Bibi was on contraception if I'm not mistaken. There is a very real possibility Fiona is already pregnant or will be in the near future if this continues. Also possible her small size will inhibit things in some form, we shall have to wait and see...
Cincy states they don't want to grow the herd, but yet they still have a bull hippo on site actively mating with another female, with contraception known to be unreliable in hippos...
 
Great Argus said:
Well and Fiona was also conceived while Bibi was on contraception if I'm not mistaken. There is a very real possibility Fiona is already pregnant or will be in the near future if this continues. Also possible her small size will inhibit things in some form, we shall have to wait and see...
Cincy states they don't want to grow the herd, but yet they still have a bull hippo on site actively mating with another female, with contraception known to be unreliable in hippos...
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A female Common hippopotamus with a surviving calf can conceive again as soon as six months after giving birth, so within the next three months, they’ll also need to put Bibi on contraception.

I agree Tucker should be transferred out. There won’t be a repeat breeding recommendation issued, so he’s serving no purpose where he is at this point in time.
 
Zoofan15 said:
A female Common hippopotamus with a surviving calf can conceive again as soon as six months after giving birth, so within the next three months, they’ll also need to put Bibi on contraception.

I agree Tucker should be transferred out. There won’t be a repeat breeding recommendation issued, so he’s serving no purpose where he is at this point in time.
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I 100% agree with you. If that were to happen, then Cincinnati would have SIX hippos. Even worse, if Fiona isn't pregnant now and Tucker mates with her and Bibi, then they will have to do the impossible task of separating them in three different groups. I also entirely agree with you about Tucker. He 100% needs to be transferred out out Cincy.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Tucker has begun mating with Fiona:

'Not unexpected': Cincinnati Zoo says hippos Fiona and Tucker have been breeding

Let’s hope the birth control works this time.

Aside from the concerns of a hippopotamus Fiona’s size carrying a calf to full term, the last thing Cincinnati needs right now is more hippos.
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Uuuuggghhhh….
Cincinnati’s mismanagement of their hippos is disappointing and disgusting. The way they immediately got to work making a new children’s book after Fritz was named is very suspicious, and don’t even get me started on how they introduced Fiona and Tucker to him so early in such a small habitat.
Here’s a joke I got from Casual Geographic on YouTube: “Where did the baby hippo go after the baby shower? Everywhere. He went everywhere.” If Cincinnati doesn’t send Tucker to another zoo soon, that punchline is going to come true and it will ruin Cincinnati’s reputation and possibly even shut them down for good.
 
Corangurilla said:
Uuuuggghhhh….
Cincinnati’s mismanagement of their hippos is disappointing and disgusting. The way they immediately got to work making a new children’s book after Fritz was named is very suspicious, and don’t even get me started on how they introduced Fiona and Tucker to him so early in such a small habitat.
Here’s a joke I got from Casual Geographic on YouTube: “Where did the baby hippo go after the baby shower? Everywhere. He went everywhere.” If Cincinnati doesn’t send Tucker to another zoo soon, that punchline is going to come true and it will ruin Cincinnati’s reputation and possibly even shut them down for good.
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It was clear from the outset that their goal was to integrate the
hippopotami as soon as possible, which has not been without risks.

I’m sure we can all agree it would have been better to delay introductions until Fritz was six months old - and to transfer Tucker out given he now has no breeding application.

Looking back on their records, Auckland Zoo were in a similar situation in 1986. A calf was born in an exhibit that contained his parents, four year old (male) sibling and another adult female. His mother was a large ferocious female and he survived - but many other calves didn’t. It was a sink or swim scenario and not something I’d advise.
 
Zoofan15 said:
Tucker has begun mating with Fiona:

'Not unexpected': Cincinnati Zoo says hippos Fiona and Tucker have been breeding

Let’s hope the birth control works this time.

Aside from the concerns of a hippopotamus Fiona’s size carrying a calf to full term, the last thing Cincinnati needs right now is more hippos.
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Great Argus said:
Sheesh. Cincy needs to ship out Tucker before things potentially go even more haywire. The absolute last thing Cincy needs is another pregnant hippo, especially a famous one that likely can't carry to term...
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Where do you think Tucker could possibly go? I would imagine him likely going to Saint Louis or San Diego or something, I honestly have no idea.
 
Haley said:
Where do you think Tucker could possibly go? I would imagine him likely going to Saint Louis or San Diego or something, I honestly have no idea.
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There are way too many answers to that question and there's no point in speculating. Nonetheless, I believe Cincy said earlier that Tucker won't be transferred anymore since he's already been transferred 3 times? In that case, I wouldn't be surprised if they eventually transferred Bibi and Fritz and kept Tucker and Fi, and honestly I think there's a really good chance they'll attempt to breed the pair eventually even if Fi remains too small. I hope they come to their senses at some point but I'm really getting worried that won't happen anytime soon.
 
Zoofan15 said:
It was a sink or swim scenario and not something I’d advise.
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With hippos, there is no "swim", only "sink" (if you know what I mean).
But for real, I'm suspicious about Cincinnati's true motives with Tucker. Was all of this planned???? Did they transfer him with the intent of giving Fiona a sibling?
Pardon my tinfoil hat, but I can't get over how greedy this all feels. I've never seen an AZA zoo do something this corporately scummy.
 
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Am I being gullible in assuming that Tucker’s transfer was SSP recommended and for the genetic diversity of the captive population?
 
This visitor video of the four popped up in my feed, and it's less than comforting about the situation. Tensions are clearly high and both Fiona and Bibi are aggressive towards Tucker, who seems to want to just get away from them. Tucker is seen to have a visible injury on his rump towards the end of the video, a mere scratch by Hippo standards but it is very visible and bleeding and draws some shock from the onlookers. It's also rather obvious how small the exhibit is as you watch the hippos having to back up and fanagle their way around each other at the right hand pool entrance. Also obvious how much smaller Fiona is compared to both Tucker and Bibi. It looks like visitors to Cincy are really starting to get a very different picture of the dynamics than what Cincy is making it out to be.

Not much of note before the :50 second mark, from there til the end.
 
I just caught up with all of the information surrounding this topic, and I'm shocked. Am I surprised that Cincinnati is prioritizing the popularity of Fiona and her family in the public eye over the actual welfare of their hippos? A little bit, but I'm not surprised that they don't plan on moving Fiona out any time soon.

Are there any on-site places that Cincinnati could move Tucker or Fiona to for the time being? I also don't understand why they don't just say that Tucker had to be moved out of the family group due to aggression. As long as they explained the natural history behind it, I don't feel like people would make too much of a fuss.

Surely there has to be at least one facility with hippos that would have space for him? I'm not familiar with all of the enclosures for hippos at the various zoos that keep them, but would somewhere like Denver or Topeka, which only have one hippo, have room for him?
 
EsserWarrior said:
I just caught up with all of the information surrounding this topic, and I'm shocked. Am I surprised that Cincinnati is prioritizing the popularity of Fiona and her family in the public eye over the actual welfare of their hippos? A little bit, but I'm not surprised that they don't plan on moving Fiona out any time soon.

Are there any on-site places that Cincinnati could move Tucker or Fiona to for the time being? I also don't understand why they don't just say that Tucker had to be moved out of the family group due to aggression. As long as they explained the natural history behind it, I don't feel like people would make too much of a fuss.

Surely there has to be at least one facility with hippos that would have space for him? I'm not familiar with all of the enclosures for hippos at the various zoos that keep them, but would somewhere like Denver or Topeka, which only have one hippo, have room for him?
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Denver and Topeka’s hippos are both males. I don’t know if that’s safe.
 
Corangurilla said:
Denver and Topeka’s hippos are both males. I don’t know if that’s safe.
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EsserWarrior said:
I know, but I don't mean they have to live together, I just wondered if they had the space to rotate them.
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Two intact bulls would be bloodshed. Even father/son relationships would deteriorate once the son reaches five years of age.

I can’t see either zoo being willing to take on an additional bull with rotation in mind. It would do little to enhance the exhibit (when you consider they could never share an exhibit space/form a cohesive pod) and double the food costs for this species.

There’s several zoos with female pods. If they were willing to put their cows on contraception (or castrate Tucker), that could be a viable option for forming a cohesive pod.
 
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