Blackie the hippo moves into retirement condo at zoo
by Joe Narkin

(Plain Press, November 2008) Blackie, the venerable Nile Hippopotamus at the Cleveland Metroparks Zoo, moved into his newly constructed retirement condo during the first week of October. “The peace and quiet will do the old guy some good,” said Zookeeper Eliot Burton at Blackie’s retirement party on August 23, 2008.

Brought to Cleveland as a one-year old in 1955 along with Red, his future mate and the mother of his three offspring-- Blackie was introduced to the public for the first time during a dedication ceremony for the newly constructed Pachyderm Building at the Zoo in 1956. He has been a major attraction in Cleveland ever since. Blackie is now 54 years old, an extremely old age for a hippopotamus. “Blackie is somewhat like a human grandfather in his late nineties,” said Alan Sironen, Curator of Mammals.

Blackie is the second oldest hippo, and the oldest male, living in North America. Donna, a 57 year-old resident of the Mesker Park Zoo in Indianapolis, is the oldest. A hippo that died at a zoo in Liepzig, Germany in 1995 at the age of 61 holds the longevity record. Hippos rarely survive in the wild to the age of 40. “We certainly have a great deal of respect for Blackie’s age and status in our collection,” said Sironen.

Despite his advanced age, Blackie is in good mental and physical condition. “He is a gentle, friendly animal and likes to interact with his keepers,” and, overall, “lives a mellow and easy life,” said Sironen. “Despite the fact that “he is no longer as vigorous an eater and will miss a meal now and again,” Blackie is still always up for a snack of apples, bananas, and watermelon to supplement his regular daily diet of 80 pounds of hay, added Sironen.

Nocturnal animals, hippos usually spend their days in shallow water and their nights grazing on land, but as Blackie has grown older, he is spending all but about an hour of his time each day floating in his warm water pool, perhaps to reduce the pressure of 2 ½ tons of body weight on arthritic joints, said Sironen.

The retirement party for Blackie was held on the same day as a crowd gathered for the “Trunk Party,” to say farewell to the zoo’s three female elephants. They were also temporarily relocated to the Columbus Zoo in order to make way for the demolition of the obsolete Pachyderm Building and the construction of a 5-acre African Elephant Crossing Exhibit -- a $25 million project expected to be completed in 2011 that is expected to be viewed as a model for elephant care at other zoos throughout the world.

The African Elephant Crossing exhibit will permit the zoo to breed elephants and provide a multigenerational family environment for up to 10 elephant cows, bulls, and calves at a time. The massive Mastodon Wall Sculptures by renowned Cleveland design artist Viktor Schreckengost were removed from the exterior walls of Pachyderm Building prior to demolition and will be built into a new zoo entrance scheduled for completion in 2010.

Concluding that relocation to another zoo would be too risky a proposition given his advanced age, zoo officials decided to build retirement quarters for Blackie as part of a $1 million expansion of the Giraffe Barn in support of an increasingly effective giraffe breeding program. Two baby giraffes, Lily and Grace, have been born at the Cleveland Zoo since August and are on display at the African Savannah Wildlife Exhibit.

While Blackie will no longer have an outdoor pool and will no longer be on public display, his new quarters were carefully constructed to replicate his surroundings in the Pachyderm Building in order to make him as comfortable as possible in his new, improved quarters.

Even though Blackie was being moved only a short distance within the zoo campus, the move was risky for the aged animal and presented numerous technical challenges to be overcome. Zoo staff could not just walk Blackie a short distance and up a small hill to his new home. Not only was there a risk that Blackie would be physically incapable of completing the walk, but Blackie had not been out of his quarters in the Pachyderm Building since his arrival over a half-century ago and, despite his age, he would be nearly impossible to control and dangerous if he became disoriented by unfamiliar surroundings.

On the day of his relocation, Blackie, without requiring sedation, entered a huge crate that was lifted by crane onto a flatbed truck for a short drive to his new home, where the process was reversed. Blackie appears to be comfortably adjusting to his new surroundings, according to Curator Sironen.

As was common zoo practice at the time, Blackie was acquired during a collection safari in 1955 to East Africa to obtain stock for the new Pachyderm Building. The safari, which was headed by eminent Clevelanders and Zoo Board of Control Members, Frederick C. Crawford and Vernon B. Stouffer, acquired three elephants, two rhinos, three giraffes, and a variety of other animals in addition to Blackie and Red. At the time, this shipment represented the largest shipment of animals from Africa to a single destination. The purchase price for Blackie was $2,180.

Blackie is a native of Northern Tanzania in East Africa, born in an area that is now the Arusha Wildlife Park, according to Sironen, who has visited the park and has observed Nile Hippos living in the wild. “While not the fastest or the most aggressive animal, they group together for protection and are a formidable beast to potential predators,” said Sironen.  “Even fearsome predators like lions and crocodiles with great hunger are deterred from attack by the Hippo’s big, powerful jaws,” he added.

While not endangered, Hippos in the wild are considered a vulnerable population and, over the past couple of decades, have been strongly reduced in numbers, largely due the hunting for food by human natives, according to Sironen. Fortunately, hippos breed well in captivity and there exists an ample adult breeding stock in zoos and preserves throughout the world.

The first hippo in North America was brought to the Philadelphia Zoo, the oldest zoo in the United States, in 1884 and the first hippo birth in captivity took place at the Memphis Zoo in 1916. There are currently 111 hippos located in 41 zoos in North America, including Canada.

For information about the zoo, including hours and rates, call (216) 661-6500. Discounted admission fees for adults and children under 11 are available throughout the winter season; children under 2 are always free. Parking is free at the zoo throughout the year; complimentary heated shuttle buses are provided during the winter. Admission to the main zoo campus is free to all residents of Cuyahoga County on Mondays year round with discounted rates for those wishing to visit the rain forest complex,

(see related photo here)

News & Articles | Archives