Baby Hippopotamus At Auckland Zoo

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6747, 4 January 1932, Page 7

Baby Hippopotamus At Auckland Zoo

ARRIVAL WITH NEW TEAR. FOURTH BIRTH IN FIVE YEARS. AUCKLAND, Jan. 2. New Year’s Day was heralded at the Auckland Zoological Park by the birth of another hippopotamus, the offspring of Chaka and Bella. If was born, very just after the chiming clocks ushered iu tho new year, and great jubilation reigned at the zoo when the news was made known, for, when the baby is a little older, it will be worth tho princely sum of £450. New Zealand’s biggest baby (length 3ft., weight 901 b.) presents a healthy and happy appearance as it swims about iu the “hippo” pond, assiduously nurtured and guarded by its mother. Owing to the policy of the zoo authorities in not venturing near mother and child for the first day or two, it is impossible at present to determine the sex of the infant. Female hippopotami are in demand in Australia and, as Dhaka and Bello, already have a male offspring, hopes arc entertained that the new arrival will prove to be a female. Complete preparations for the coming of the new baby were made a week ago, when fresh wire-netting was placed across Bella’s side of the pond to prevent the youngster crawling into the division occupied by its father or into that inhabited by its brother, Ponclo. These precautions were justified when, on tho keepers’ inspection of the ponds early yesterday morning, the addition to tho Chaka family was discovered, alive and well. When the hippopotamus home was , visited yesterday afternoon the infant was under water, but every now and then its nose and comical ears appeared above the surface, where it took a deep breath before descending again. It looked fat and healthy. Mr. L. T. - Griffin, the curator, explained that the j infant would probably be taken ashore j for its first walk after dark. Although 1 a little “groggy” on its feet it would in all likelihood be shown its mother’s * sleeping house and tho leading features [of the landscape, but, as its feet were j; exceedingly tender, Bella would be obliged to take her infant back to the p water, <