(7/5/2010)
Bali Safari & Marine Park welcomed the birth of bouncing baby hippopotamus born at the facility on May 18, 2010. The first hippo to be born in Bali, the proud parents of the baby, Dita and Doni, moved to Bali in 2007 from the Cisuarua Safari Park in West Java.
Click Images to Enlarge
Hippos have an estimated life span of 40-50 years. Dita, the new hippo's mother, is 12 years of age.
According to her keeper, Dita lost her appetite in the few days prior to delivering her baby, chosing to while away her time standing in a water pool within the hippo enclosure. Delivery, when it occured, happened under water.
Classed among the three largest land animals, after elephants and white rhinos, hippos are semi-aquatic. Deceptively docile and friendly with their handlers, the hippo has, in fact, a well-deserved reputation for ferocity, causing more deaths to humans in Africa than elephants and lions.
Although able to run up to 30 kilometers and hour over short distances, most fatal hippo attacks occur in Africa rivers when disgruntled hippos attack and local river boats.
An estimate 125,000 – 200,000 hippos still live in the wilds of Africa.
The new baby hippo in Bali already weighs an estimated 40 kilograms. Curators at the Park have yet to name the newcomer, with visitors and well-wishers welcome to leave their suggestions.
Shown on
balidiscovery.com is Dita and her new baby.
© Bali
Discovery Tours. Articles may be quoted and reproduced
if attributed to http://www.balidiscovery.com.
