WHY BABY HIPPO DIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 45, 23 February 1927, Page 12

WHY BABY HIPPO DIED.

YOUJf G MALES HAVE SHALL CHANCE. MOTHERS HIDE THEM IN" SWAMPS. The news of The sudden and earlv end of the bay hippo by the teeth of its father at the Auckland Zoo has reached the missionary station of Pom. in the wilds of the l ppcr Nile Province. Mr. Keith Kimmer, an Aucklander who is stationed there, refer* to the savaginp to death of the young hippo t*y i;» parent in the course or a letter home, and points out that this possibility i** well known to those acquainted with the habits of these animals. He writes: "Aucklanders will probablv be interested to know that the killing of baby male hij'pos is cj 11 itthe custom in those place? where the hippo has his home, and the Auckland i< therefore not. extraordinary. It is well known among the local river natives that when the young hippo is born, if it should l»e a male and t!.e father is anywhere in the vicinity, the mother will immediately take tin y«,ung one away fifteen or more miles and hide it there. She will then return to feed i: continually and will take rare of it until it i> i.i'j; enough to be able to fipht with its father and hold its own. The above-mentioned course is not necessary if the young ia female, as the father will not have the same animosity towards it. nor desire to kill it. It would, therefore, be advisable if the Auckland Zoo authorities immediately remove the next male bahv froni the vicinity of his father."' The male hippo is not the only animal which M?eks to kill the young, sjnee it is well cnown that polar bears and certain it.her largo l»en?ts have thi« instinol.