Pygmy hippos in captivity
- Thread starter vogelcommando
- Start date
Correct. I know the following non-AZA zoos have them, there may be more that I am missing. Some are former AZA, some are former AZA but did not have hippo when they were AZA.
ZAA:
Montgomery Zoo (Alabama)
Jackson Zoo (Mississippi)
Metro Richmond Zoo (Virginia)
Gulf Breeze Zoo (Florida)
Wildlife World Zoo, Aquarium & Safari Park (Arizona)
Tanganyika Wildlife Park (Kansas)
Non-AZA or ZAA:
Giraffe Ranch (Florida)
Not open to the public:
Center for Conservation of Tropical Ungulates (Florida)
Have you any idea as to how this breaks down in M / F and offspring?
Blitz
Active Member
Per Toronto's news post about her dad Harvey's birthday on Dec 20, 2023, Penelope's now at John Ball Zoo in Grand Rapids, Michigan. John Ball also apparently recently acquired another Pygmy Hippo as well called Jahari from the Pittsburgh Zoo. Per John Ball's zoo newsletter, they're hoping to breed Jahari and Penelope in the future.
Zoo-Lover-1-2-3
Well-Known Member
Boston Franklin Park Zoo Pygmy hippos:
Cleopatra: Female, born somewhere in Canada, mother to Ptolemy.
Inocencio: Male, born somewhere in Chile, father to Ptolemy.
Ptolemy: Male, born in Boston, son to Cleopatra and Inocencio.
Cleopatra: Female, born somewhere in Canada, mother to Ptolemy.
Inocencio: Male, born somewhere in Chile, father to Ptolemy.
Ptolemy: Male, born in Boston, son to Cleopatra and Inocencio.
I'm quite sure Inocencio is from Buin, the only zoo in South America with pygmy hippos.
Brazilian zoos have yet to keep pygmy hippos, but I don't see that happening so soon.
Zoo-Lover-1-2-3
Well-Known Member
Thanks for the info!
Credit goes to Veno. A male calf is exciting but when I tried to research the Japanese pygmy hippopotamus population years ago, only using old news articles and blogs and Google translate, I found that there was some “closeness” between some pairs which might be referring to the genetics. So this individual might unfortunately be unviable for a global breeding population.
Rizz Carlton
Well-Known Member
Hippos are quite popular in Indonesian zoos, almost all zoos even have both Nile and pygmy hippopotamus. In the case of the latter, the species has been long maintained in Indonesia.
Sinka Zoo - Single female
Ragunan Zoo - Two pair
Taman Safari Bogor - Breeding group of 8-10
Bandung Zoo - Single male
Lembang Park & Zoo - Single individual
Solo Safari - Single male
Gembira Loka Zoo - Single individual on-display
Surabaya Zoo - 6 hippos (2018)
Taman Safari Prigen - 4 hippos (2014)
Batu Secret Zoo - Unspecified numbers
Bali Safari & Marine Park - 3 hippos
Lombok Wildlife Park - Single pair
Sinka Zoo - Single female
Ragunan Zoo - Two pair
Taman Safari Bogor - Breeding group of 8-10
Bandung Zoo - Single male
Lembang Park & Zoo - Single individual
Solo Safari - Single male
Gembira Loka Zoo - Single individual on-display
Surabaya Zoo - 6 hippos (2018)
Taman Safari Prigen - 4 hippos (2014)
Batu Secret Zoo - Unspecified numbers
Bali Safari & Marine Park - 3 hippos
Lombok Wildlife Park - Single pair
Which zoos have Pygmy's and which have Common Hippos?
Rizz Carlton
Well-Known Member
All of the mentioned zoos, except for Sinka, Batu, and Lombok, have both species. I think only Safari Beach Jateng, Siantar Zoo, and Maharani Zoo have only the Nile hippo.
Any idea on names?
Rizz Carlton
Well-Known Member
For pygmy hippos:
Solo Safari - Agus
Bali Safari & Marine Park (Revision they have four pygmy hippo, one was born in 2021, my mistake) - Bono, Fitriano, Pablo, and Fion
No idea about the other pygmy hippos.
What about the Common Hippos? I'm especially interested in the groups at both Taman Safari parks.
Same, I’d be fascinated to know if the two Australia sent them are still alive (and if they have any descendants):
0.1 Solucky (1987)
1.0 Tippi (2004)
Bearing in mind they may have been renamed upon import.
Agree, I have a sneaky suspicion it may be one of the Taman Safari parks as they're realistically the only parks with 'large' hippo pods.
Rizz Carlton
Well-Known Member
I'm unable to track much regarding the common hippos in Taman Safari, but I'm aware that the park in Cisarua (Taman Safari Bogor) have a large group.
I recall that Cisarua have around six enclosures for common hippos, five of them houses around 3 to 5 hippos each. @Zoofan15 I'm aware of some hippopotamus imports from Australia, but it hard to track down where these hippos eventually ended up. With Tippi and how 'recent' it arrived and how hippos are generally long-lived in Indonesian zoos, I'm pretty sure that it's still alive. But, again, it's very hard to keep a track of a single individual due to lack of informations and such.
Boulder Ridge Wild Animal Park, in Michigan, which I believe is ZAA-accredited, also now has pygmy hippo.