sea-lion hippo mix???
- Thread starter gerome
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cerperal
Well-Known Member
Longleat Safari Park, until earlier this year, held hippos in their artificial lake alongside a breeding group of California sea lions. The exhibit is viewed from a boat ride, with a central island that in the past has held chimpanzees and latterly the famous gorilla Nico, currently with a group of black-and-white colobus. A gorilla bachelor troop is also visible on the bank of the lake.
As to why - because they could, quite simply. For the past 25 years or so they only held 2 hippos, and despite the best attempts of sea lions pups they tolerated each other exceptionally well - both groups happily bred alongside each other. Both hippos have died in the past year, with intentions to replace them in future - either in that same lake or elsewhere in the park.
This is a really well-known mix, although surprisingly there seems to only be one photo in the Zoochat gallery showing both species in the same frame (by @Maguari):
In one of my old zoo books - I can't remember which one off-hand - there is a photo of a sealion lying stretched out along the back of a hippo at Longleat, so they tolerated each other very well.
I had a look on Google Images and only found this one, with one of the sealions using a hippo as a handy haul-out spot:
hippo and sea lion at longleat by vegas
cerperal
Well-Known Member
The hippos were famously very hard to photograph, often bobbing at the side of the lake 50 metres or so from the sea lion jetty shown there. The sea lions would also follow the boats for the fish thrown overboard, so they'd rarely interact when visitors were around. I think I only ever saw them actually together perhaps twice in my 20-something visits.
I managed to find this image from Longleat themselves showing the lake Uber service in action:
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Jambi
Well-Known Member
I remember seeing this on Longleat's TV show Animal Park when I was a kid in the early 2000's, I didn't realise they were still doing it until recently (I've never actually been to Longleat). It's one of those mixed species exhibits that you'd think wouldn't work at all, and probably wouldn't if anywhere else tried it, so I'm surprised how well the sea lions and hippos got along.
Probably a far-fetched theory, but perhaps at some point in the ancient past hippos and/or sea lions lived alongside a similar, now extinct animal they got along with, and there's some genetic memory or evolutionary anachronism thing going on for either one or both species?
Probably a far-fetched theory, but perhaps at some point in the ancient past hippos and/or sea lions lived alongside a similar, now extinct animal they got along with, and there's some genetic memory or evolutionary anachronism thing going on for either one or both species?
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