SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Zoo & Gardens on Friday introduced the arrival of a pygmy hippopotamus, the primary of its endangered species on the zoo since 2004.
The male hippo named Udo, which interprets to “peace” within the Igbo language of West Africa, is 2 years previous and native to the international locations of Sierra Leone, Guinea, Liberia and Cote d’Ivoire, in keeping with the zoo.
Pygmy hippos are totally different than river hippos, preferring to spend extra trip of the water and have smaller heads and mouths. They are about 5 to six toes in size and weigh between 400 to 600 kilos, whereas river hippos can weigh over 4,000 kilos, zoo officers say.
“Although the pygmy hippo is much smaller than the larger river hippo, our Udo is big on personality! His presence here helps fulfill our mission to conserve animals such as the pygmy hippo by educating zoo visitors about an endangered species whose numbers have declined drastically due to habitat loss and illegal hunting,” San Francisco Zoological Society government director Tanya Peterson stated in a news launch.
Udo will likely be at an space of the zoo subsequent to different endangered African species just like the African lion and black rhino.
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