Infighting leads to death of a female Hippopotamus in Nandankanan Zoo

20 May, Bhubaneswar

An infighting between a male and a female Hippopotamus inside the pool of Nandankanan Zoo here led to the tragic death of a 15 year old female hippopotamus.

The incident took place early in the morning and the female Hippopotamus was found floating dead at around 0500 hrs in the pool by the Zoo staff.

Nandankanan Zoo deputy director Jayant Das confirmed that the death of female Hippopotamus is due to infighting with male counterpart as ascertained anatomically with several injuries found on the female Hippopotamus.

Das said the postmortem will be done later in the day.

After the shocking incident, the Zoo authority has decided to segregate the male’s from the females to avoid infighting in future. This will also help in checking the breeding population of the Hippopotamus inside the pool for next two years, he said.

The Zoo has now 17 Hippopotamus which included seven male, eight female and two calf. The Zoo authority has decided to clean the water of the pool.