July 21st, 2012. West African River Experience (Hippos) A large room has a single exhibit in it, and quite incredibly it features two young female Nile hippos as the only ones in any aquarium on the planet. There are also a number of birds flying overhead (piping hornbill, black-cheeked lovebird, Abdim stork, snowy-headed robin chat, Taveta golden weaver, cattle egret and hammerkop) as well as a couple of African crested porcupines. The birds were very active on our visit, launching above us and perching in the tall, fake trees. I felt at first that I was viewing the indoor holding quarters of the Nile hippos as there is not a tremendous amount of land space, but the underwater viewing area is simply awesome. There are windows along the side of the pool and the hippos playfully knocked on the glass and jostled with each other. The main theater-style viewing windows feature a bewildering array of cichlids that are beautiful, and the pool is about 10-feet deep and seeing the lumbering grey beasts underwater is spectacular. I know that in reality hippos need a lot of land space and a large herd to replicate their natural living conditions, but whenever I see them underwater it is mind-blowing and crowds line up from near and far to see the animals conduct their graceful aquatic ballet. Is it fair to keep such enormous mammals in an all-indoor environment? That is a debate for another day, but they certainly bring in the crowds and they are a massive hit with the public.
