That's exciting...thanks for the information! I'll wait and see what you think of it because the book is almost $40 Canadian on Amazon and that's a bit expensive. However, if it is worth the money then I'll definitely purchase a copy.
@snowleopard This is not intended as a detailed review of this book but my initial reaction follows:
I have somewhat mixed feelings about this book which provides a wealth of information about both London Zoo's first hippopotamus "Obaysch" and about other early zoo hippos too. Some of the anecdotes included in the book were new to me (e.g. "Obaysch" eating a dog that entered his enclosure).
The author appears to have researched the subject thoroughly as is evidenced by both the extensive bibliography he provides and the numerous references he supplies in footnotes.
However, despite his research, the author makes the extraordinary comment that “in 1851 a baby elephant was born”. No elephant was born in London Zoo that year. (In fact only one elephant has ever been born in London Zoo; a female Asian elephant in 1902- and that was born dead.)
I'm being pedantic here but something else that irritated me. The author comments the hippopotamus "Bucheet", which London Zoo received in 1860, arrived together with some “rare birds”; no details about these birds are supplied. However, I would have thought it was worth mentioning that these “rare birds” were not only London Zoo’s first ever shoebills but were, almost certainly, the first living shoebills ever to leave Africa.
The author clearly disapproves of zoos and throughout the book he makes a number of emotive anti-zoo comments; just a few extracts follow that illustrate his attitude to zoos:-
(a) how cruelly Obaysch was treated and how shocking the incarceration of free-ranging animals can be....
(b) Obaysch was a wild animal with a wild life and that being in a zoo in the middle of London was imprisonment pure and simple....
(c) 0baysch's story, and those of other hippos who dragged out miserable lives in European zoos..
Personally, the author's lack of objectivity about zoos and his anti-zoo stance spoiled the book for me.
