Pygmy Hippo outdoor enclosure

Is their a pool in the outdoor exhibit?

@nczoofan Don't think so. Not that I can remember anyway, just this mud wallow. They have a pool in the indoor area though.

Where's all the shade? It looks like every part of the enclosure is exposed to the sun (unless there is more than pictured here).

@Coelacanth18 there is good chunk of it around the fence, certainly big enough to fit pygmy hippo

Measured it quickly and its extremely small at 100 sq meters. EAZA guidelines state "Each outdoor exhibit must have a pool or pond, which should be of sufficient size to allow the animals to swim and walk underwater." So it's interesting to this exhibit failing to meet multiple standards set up by the accrediting body.

https://www.eaza.net/assets/Uploads...-Practice-Guidelines-Pygmy-hippo-approved.pdf

Also if this is the only pool they have on exhibit, then I feel bad for these pygmy hippos.

@nczoofan Well...the guidelines are literally few weeks old and I think the exhibit is a bit older than that

@HOMIN96 I didn't see the date Glad they have upped the guidelines, and hope this zoo improves the conditions of its hippo exhibit to match. Although I wonder how low those guidelines were before this update.

@HOMIN96 would that be the same shade I'm seeing along the edge where the rocks are? It may be enough to fit a pygmy hippo, but as a forest animal wouldn't they normally be in shade most of the time? I know that tapirs can go blind if overexposed to sunlight, I thought maybe pygmy hippos were affected the same. It doesn't appear to have a mud wallow in a shaded area, either.

Dont forget the hippos have the old patas monkey outdoor area which is off show the public and still can come inside when they want to get out of the sun, but i know that the zoos plan had been to rebuild the outdoor area with a heated outdoors pool and redevelop the whole outdoors area but due to covid its been delayed