Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Cleveland Metroparks Zoo Hippo Question

[EagleScout610]

Hi.
I was talking to a friend recently about our childhoods at the zoo and he remembered seeing Blackie the Hippo in the rhino yard after ground was broke on Elephant Crossing. From what I remember he went straight into the giraffe building but my friend insists he saw him in the rhino exhibit a few times. Am I just remembering wrong? Or was he in there for a period?

 

[RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe]

Hi.
I was talking to a friend recently about our childhoods at the zoo and he remembered seeing Blackie the Hippo in the rhino yard after ground was broke on Elephant Crossing. From what I remember he went straight into the giraffe building but my friend insists he saw him in the rhino exhibit a few times. Am I just remembering wrong? Or was he in there for a period?

Blackie moved directly from the Pachyderm Building to the Giraffe Barn. He never lived in the Rhino Yard, so your friend is wrong. Blackie lived in the Giraffe Barn for 5+ years until his death in January 2014 at 60 years of age. Also BTW Blackie was the oldest male hippo on record from his death until January 2021, when a male hippo in Florida turned 61.