Zürich Zoo zebra cleaning hippos teeth

Chlidonias

Chlidonias

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there's a photo on the link
Zebra cleans hippopotamus's teeth - Telegraph
The hippo is one of world's most aggressive animals and can kill with one snap of its powerful jaw.

Visitors to the zoo where both animals live were amazed to see the zebra craning its neck into the mouth of the water-loving mammal.

But their surprise increased when they realised the striped creature was cleaning the hippo's teeth.

The extraordinary spectacle was captured by Jill Sonsteby, a photographer, at Zurich Zoo, in Switzerland.

The 34-year-old, from Jacksonville, Florida, USA, said: "The zebra was in the same enclosure as the hippo and its baby. The hippo opened its mouth and let the zebra in there to clean. They literally did that for the 20 of us zoo-goers for about 15 minutes.

"There was no harm done to the zebra. Everybody was snapping pictures of the sight. They thought it was really sweet. It was so great to be there at that moment."

Despite being just five feet tall, the hippo, weighing up to three tonnes, is the third largest mammal in the world. Its impressive jaw measures two feet across and can be opened to 150 degrees.

Its bite-pressure has been measured at 1,821 pounds – enough to snap a small boat in half.

Despite its hefty frame, the hippo can out run a human on land with speeds of up to 19 miles per hour over short distances. In water, adult hippos cannot swim but propel themselves along at speeds of up to five miles per hour.

Known to be aggressive, the animals are most hostile when protecting their young. They rarely kill each other but have been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in Africa.
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do you mean this is at Basle, and Zurich is a journalist's error?
 
Hi Chlidonias,

Yeah, because Basel has the Hippo & Zebra combi, and AFAIK Zurich keeps only Pygmy Hippos ...
 
I'm certain it's Basel too, interestingly in 2004 "Kalungu, a 17-year-old male zebra, was knocked into the water and mauled after he bit the lip of hippo Wilhelm during the animals' daily ritual to establish territory, said zoo spokesperson Tanja Dietrich. The zebra managed to get out of the water but collapsed and died shortly after."
 
Is this behaviour you would see in the wild? I have seen footage of fish and birds cleaning hippo teeth but not a zebra.

I can't really understand the motivation for the zebra to do this - from the hippos point of view in the absence of fish/birds/other then I guess a zebra is as good as anything else for a toothbrush. But surely the zebra is not starving and is aware that hippos are pretty bad tempered - why risk putting your head in its mouth?

This isn't even the sort of thing that zebras do to each other is it? So it can't be confused thinking that the hippo is actually a big, fat, dirty zebra with big teeth that likes to swim alot... And I don't expect hippos do it to each other as they aren't really equipped orally so the zebra can't think its a hippo...:confused:
 
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