Premature Common Hippopotamus Deaths in North American AZA Facilities since 2000

R

RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe

Well-Known Member
This is a list of all Common Hippopotamuses in North American Zoos that died under the age of 40 since 2000. This list does not include calves who died at less than a month old.
*= death not announced publicly
- Penelope, a 31-year-old female died at Louisiana Purchase Gardens & Zoo on May 3, 2019.
- *Blippo, a 37-year-old male at Winston Wildlife Safari died on March 1, 2019.
- *Poppy, a 26-year-old female at Fort Worth Zoo died on February 8, 2019.
- Adhama, a 7-year-old male at Dallas Zoo died on October 10, 2018.
- Henry, a 36-year-old male at Cincinnati Zoo died on October 31, 2017.
- Labor Day, a 33-year-old female at Kansas City Zoo died on December 28, 2016.
- Rosey, a 24-year-old female at Honolulu Zoo died on July 17, 2014.
- Puddles, a 37-year-old female at Milwaukee County Zoo died on August 11, 2013.
- Jabba, a 29-year-old male at Los Angeles Zoo died on January 20, 2012.
- *Rosie, a 20-year-old female at Disney's Animal Kingdom died on February 6, 2010.
- *Morrie, a 32-year-old male at Winston Wildlife Safari died on October 13, 2008.
- Montgomery, a 36-year-old male at Riverbanks Zoo died on July 15, 2008.
- Maggie, a 34-year-old female at Cheyenne Mountain Zoo died on May 6, 2008.
- *Moxie, a 7-year-old female at Busch Gardens Tampa died on March 13, 2008.
- Hazina, a 6-year-old female at Calgary Zoo died on October 27, 2007.
- Niles, a 2-year-old male at Gulf Breeze Zoo died on July 12, 2007.
- Pancho, an 8-year-old male at Ellen Trout Zoo died on February 20, 2007.
- *Norman, a 39-year-old male at Disney's Animal Kingdom died on July 10, 2006.
- Jewel, a 38-year-old female at Sacramento Zoo died on March 19, 2004.
- *Peaches, a 33-year-old female at Riverbanks Zoo died on January 21, 2004.
- Samantha, a 24-year-old female at Denver Zoo died on October 20, 2003.
- *Pinky, a 34-year-old male at Milwaukee County Zoo died on June 26, 2003.

Overall, the North American AZA population has lost 22 hippos prematurely since 2000. Let me know if I missed any hippos that died under 40 years old in 2000 or later. Again, calves less than 1 month old don't count.
 
Great Argus said:
Um... why. Also I don't think living into their 30's is "premature", not all hippos live to be ancient you know.
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The maximum life expectancy is around 40-50 years (a few exceptional hippos make it into their early 50’s), so I definitely wouldn’t class mid to late 30’s as premature. Premature could arguably be defined as under 30 years; and others might argue for under 20 years.

With a bit of extra research @RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe, you could have included the cause of death of these hippos. I looked up the first one and she died of cardiac problems. This would add more depth to the statistics by allowing the identification of common causes of death by age and gender. As myself and others have mentioned before, sometimes it’s worth putting time into a thread before posting.
 
I strongly advise that you just take a moment to think if a thread you’re posting adds *any* value to the forum because if I’m being honest, a majority of the threads you’ve been posting lately have been very random and not very useful for other zoochatters. These random threads are just clogging up the forum and obviously we don’t want that. I hate to be rude here but I think I speak for several of us when I say this is getting slightly frustrating.
 
Zoofan15 said:
The maximum life expectancy is around 40-50 years (a few exceptional hippos make it into their early 50’s), so I definitely wouldn’t class mid to late 30’s as premature. Premature could arguably be defined as under 30 years; and others might argue for under 20 years.

With a bit of extra research @RhinoHippoElephantGiraffe, you could have included the cause of death of these hippos. I looked up the first one and she died of cardiac problems. This would add more depth to the statistics by allowing the identification of common causes of death by age and gender. As myself and others have mentioned before, sometimes it’s worth putting time into a thread before posting.
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Completely agree with this! You get an average life expectancy by averaging the death ages, which means some are going to be below that average, just like some will be above it. 30s is a decent life. This list also means nothing without knowing how they die. Most, if not all, of these animals received excellent vet care by people who did everything they could to keep them alive. Posting a list like this comes across as if you're saying these places aren't good because the animals died younger.
 
Zoofan15 said:
The maximum life expectancy is around 40-50 years (a few exceptional hippos make it into their early 50’s).....
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It is, of course, an exceptionally rare occurrence, but it's interesting to note that a female hippopotamus in Munich Zoo lived to be sixty-one.
 
Tim May said:
It is, of course, an exceptionally rare occurrence, but it's interesting to note that a female hippopotamus in Munich Zoo lived to be sixty-one.
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I can do better than that. A female hippopotamus died in Manila at the age of 65. Both exceptionally rare cases as you say. Auckland Zoo held this species for close to a century and the longest lived of their many hippos was 50 when she died. The previous record holder being her sire who died at 40. As well as the many calves that died, several others died in their 20’s and 30’s.
 
What is the purpose of this thread? Yes, animals die at various ages for a variety of reasons. Yes, it's sad when an animal doesn't live out its full estimated lifespan, but that's nature. What kind of statement are you trying to make?

Also, hippos reach sexual maturity at 5-6 years old for females and by around 7.5 years old for males. Describing the deaths of 30+ year old individuals as "premature" has got to be the looniest take I have ever seen on this forum (and yes, I've been to the hot takes thread ;)).
 
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