In 2011, the hippo house underwent a key renovation, which completely changed its look, but most importantly contributed to major water and energy savings. Nocturnal Tanganyika is part of this house; the exhibit is currently inaccessible due to an ongoing redesign project.
Currently, three hippos stay at the Tanganyika House. The breeding pair consists of a female (*2013) brought to Ostrava – upon the recommendation of the European Hippopotamus Studbook Keeper – from Whipsnade, UK, in 2016, and a male (*2012) that arrived in October 2019 from Antwerp. As early as on 24 July 2020, these first-time parents produced their first offspring – a female.
Common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius)
The scientific name – Hippopotamus – comes from Greek and means river horse. Hippos spend up to 18 hours a day in water. They also mate there. After a pregnancy period of eight months, the female gives birth in the water; the calf weighs about 35–50 kg. Female hippos also nurse their young in water. Hippos are adapted to the aquatic environment very well through a number of anatomical and physiological traits. The closable nostrils, eyes and ears are positioned flush on the top of the head so that the hippo can be as submerged as possible while keeping an eye on what is going on around it. The smooth and almost hairless skin has a large number of glands producing a mucous-like secretion of a brownish-red colour, which has an antiseptic effect. Hippos make a distinctive grunting sound. It has recently been discovered that they can make and hear sounds even underwater. They usually only come out of the water to feed after dark. They are rather modest in terms of diet, consuming even grass of very poor quality (40–60 kg per day). We have never weighed our hippos, but the maximum weight is reported to be up to 2 tonnes for males. Hippos live in groups. The dominant male protects a group of females with young from rivals and marks the territory by scattering its faeces.
Since 2004, the hippopotamus has been Ostrava’s emblematic species. We chose this animal because it had been kept in Ostrava since 1967 and the only stock that exists in the Czech Republic can be found in Ostrava, Dvůr Králové and Prague. In 2006, Ostrava was entrusted with compiling and issuing the European Studbook (ESB) for the common hippo, keeping this inventory of all hippos kept in European zoos, including their ancestors, up to 2023.
Hippos fall under the Cetartiodactyla order, which was created by merging the orders Cetacea and Artiodactyla, based on molecular studies. Currently, there are two members of the Hippopotamus family in the wild – the Common Hippopotamus and the Pygmy Hippopotamus. Both are found on the African continent. Extinct members of the family even inhabited places like Madagascar, for example. One of them was Hippopotamus madagascariensis, whose skeletal relief can be seen near the Lemur Paradise exhibit.
A group of the rare Slender-snouted crocodile (Mecistops cataphractus) also stays at the house. The crocodiles measure around two metres long when young, and can grow up to four metres long as adults. This species is a specialist fish hunter, for which it has adapted elongated jaws (similar to those of gavials or false gharials, to which it is not closely related, however). In reality, though, crocodiles will only catch healthy fish in the open water with great difficulty, which allows us to breed endemic Lake Tanganyika fish species together with the crocs. Their prey is usually sick or otherwise debilitated individuals, and so, like carnivores or other predators, they act as health police, helping to maintain healthy fish populations in the wild.
Hippo skeleton
At the back of the house, a hippo skeleton has been installed, which presents the anatomy of the zoo’s emblematic animal from a slightly different perspective. According to our information, no complete skeleton of such a famous animal is exhibited in any public institution in the Czech Republic.
The house is open all year round.
