Photo/CORRESPONDENT Elizabeth, a pygmy hippo donated to Mzee Jome Kenyatta by President Tubman of Liberia at the Nairobi Safari Walk in Nairobi National Park. The animal died last Wednesday.
By NYAMBEGA GISESA (engisesa@yahoo.com)
Posted Sunday, December 18 2011 at 20:23
Posted Sunday, December 18 2011 at 20:23
A hippopotamus that was a gift to Mzee Jomo Kenyatta from Liberian President William Tubman has died.
In 1968, Dr Tubman, who was the guest of honour at the Nairobi Show, presented a dwarf male hippo to President Kenyatta, to boost ties between the two countries.
With that type of hippo only largely available in Liberia and two or three other West African countries, it was not easy for the one and only of its kind to find a mate in Kenya.
“But as the only one of his kind in the whole of East Africa, he found it a bit difficult making friends — even in his new home at the Nairobi Orphanage,” the Nation of September 19, 1970 reported.
Worried, President Kenyatta sent emissaries to the cigar-smoking statesman who promised to send a mate for the dwarf hippo.
The female hippo, later christened Elizabeth, arrived from Monrovia aboard a Pan American Airways jet liner on September 18, 1970.
At the airport, she was put into a heated compound and fed cabbage and bananas.
Last Wednesday morning, Elizabeth died at the Nairobi Safari Walk where she was staying, leaving behind Bob, a hippo grandson, aged nine, and other relatives staying in Mt Kenya Game Ranch and Oj Jogi Ranch, a Kenya Wildlife Statement said.
Preliminary reports ruled out suicide and murder and later on, a post-mortem conducted by KWS veterinary doctor Edward Kariuki, gave the reason of death as age-related bout of pneumonia.
“She easily made friends and many visitors loved her. Her return to the refurbished Nairobi Safari Walk was a joyous occasion and until her death, she was a star attraction at the Safari Walk where she enjoyed prime place in the first enclosure as one enters the captive animal husbandry facility,” KWS corporate communications manager Paul Udoto said.
Rare animals
The lifespan of pigmy hippos is believed to be 30 to 40 years, and Elizabeth had lived in Kenya for 41 years, contributing significantly to the pygmy hippo population which is so rare.
They weigh 158.8 kg to 249.5 kgs, stand about two and a half feet (0.8m) tall at the shoulder, and measure about five feet (1.5 m) from head to tail.
They are the only other type of hippos. Unlike Nile hippopotamuses, they have proportionately smaller heads, proportionately longer legs and necks and tails are not unbranched.
Unlike the rest, their eyes are placed on the sides of the head and their nostrils are low on the face. Because of their secretive and nocturnal habits, not much is known about their lifestyles.
From observations for those imprisoned in zoos, they live singly and when they are found together, it’s usually a male and female consorting before mating. They produce oil naturally, which protects their skin against water loss.
The pigmy donation to Kenya was not the first such gift; other donations from Liberia went to US presidents and Zurich, Switzerland.
In 1927, the founder of Firestone Tire and Rubber Company Harvey Firestone donated a pigmy hippopotamus from Liberia as a pet to US President Calvin Coolidge, possibly because the tire mogul didn’t want to feed the ugly mammal.
In 1960, President Tubman donated a male pigmy hippo to US President Eisenhower.
The Sarasota Herald-Tribune of January 25 1960 reported that the senior keeper of the large mammal division of Washington Zoo “will be very happy when he can get rid of the latest four-legged gift to President Eisenhower — a Liberian pygmy hippopotamus.
“The ugly prisoner from the Gola Forest of Liberia has been in President Tubman’s private zoo at his farm eight miles from Monrovia,” the newspaper added.
According to the World Conservation Union (IUCN), the pigmy hippos are threatened with extinction due to the rapid deforestation and bush meat hunting.
She was initially hosted at the then Nairobi Animal Orphanage before being moved to a private conservancy in Ol Jogi in Laikipia in 2004 to pave way for the modern Nairobi Safari Walk.
It was most amazing coming to see the hippo. He was friendly,” Richard Bosire, a regular visitor to Nairobi Safari Walk said.
KWS chief licensing officer Ibrahim Lubia told Nation: “There are several other animals that were brought in before independence and have since bred. We have chimpanzees brought to Kenya during the war in Burundi to save them”.
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