The male hippo died when some ***hole threw a rubber ball in the exhibit and the male swallowed it and suffocated to death. The old giraffe barn is the yellow building on the left. The new giraffe exhibit encompasses the old elephant, giraffe, hippo, and wallaroo yards.
Just came across this photo, and the new zoo in Elk Grove plans to house hippos. The two hippos in the photo are Vanderbilt (male) and Jewel (female), both born in 1966 and arrived at the Sacramento Zoo in 1968. Vanderbilt tragically died in 1978 after swallowing a ball thrown into the exhibit by a young boy and Jewel died in 2004 aged 37 years. They had
