Pygmy Hippo/White Stork Exhibit - 6/18/23

It’s great to see a zoo giving pygmy hippos this much land area, as many exhibits are far too aquatic.

@nczoofan I would assume part of the reason would be the planned inclusion of Sitatunga - which unfortunately never made it to opening.

It really is terrible what happened with the sitatunga. Beyond the fact that it turned an exciting new addition to the zoo into a PR nightmare, American zoos rarely push the boundaries when it comes to mixed species habitats nowadays. To see a facility plan an interesting mix only to see it fail so tragically is awful.

Overall however this exhibit looks really nice. Definitely one of the better pygmy hippo enclosures in the US and I like the naturalistic look of the indoor exhibit.

Unfortunately, looking at this exhibit, which does appear to be a very nice pygmy hippo habitat, I can genuinely say that I am not surprised the mix with the sitatunga went the way that it did. Sitatunga are flighty animals that need a certain level of privacy to really feel comfortable, but when their flight bubble is encroached on, they will not hesitate to defend themselves. This habitat provides very little privacy and very little space for the animals to genuinely escape from one another — especially considering both of these species would be inclined to either flee to water or stand their ground. Confrontations between the two species were inevitable with this set-up. It is a real shame that a sitatunga lost its life because of this.

@Kudu21, in your opinion, is there a large hoofstock species that would have been a better choice for this concept? You say this particular exhibit was poorly designed for its intent, so I'm asking only about the concept of displaying pygmy hippopotamuses and large hoofstock.