Hip hip, hooray: Hippopotamuses arrive at Monarto Safari Park
The park’s Wild Africa expansion is continuing with its acquisition of two hippos, the first in South Australia since 2020.
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Three years after the death of South Australia’s last hippopotamus, a pair of newcomers have moved into a new habitat at Monarto Safari Park.
Nile hippos Brindabella, 33 this week, and her daughter Pansy, 10, recently arrived from Werribee Open Range Zoo as part of the safari park’s Wild Africa expansion.
The trip took them eight hours overnight by truck, in specially designed crates equipped with a spray system to keep their skin damp.
Hippos would normally spend about 16 hours submerged in water each day, assistant carnivores and ungulates keeper Jon Allon said, and could get dehydrated easily.
The pair are in quarantine at the moment, but should be right at home once they’re allowed into their new enclosure.
“The huge central waterhole in their habitat features gradual slopes and a variety of depths which should be perfect for the hippos,” Mr Allon said.
“It also has a sandy beach where we’re looking forward to seeing them soak up some sun.
“The hippos have access to pools in their own off-habitat facilities for those colder nights.”
A new hippo experience will be made available to visitors in the near future – perhaps around the time the luxury hotel overlooking their habitat opens next year.
Finishing touches are being put on hotel development
Rooms were now being furnished and finishing touches put on the hotel at the safari park, Zoos SA chief executive Elaine Bensted said last month.
It would have 78 rooms – almost as many as Murray Bridge’s Bridgeport Hotel, redeveloped in 2021 – and feature a spa area, convention facilities and more.
“It will be a game-changer for the whole region,” she said.
“We’ve already got the largest safari experience in the world outside of Africa, so it really will be a drawcard.
“We already get nearly 200,000 visitors per year, and if we can get 50,000 of those people staying here … we can send people to the river, we’ve got a whole lot of local produce, it can be an economic development project for the region.”
The hotel is due to open next April.
Twenty glamping units will follow a few months later.
Zoos SA keeps things in the family
By coincidence, Brindabella and Pansy are the granddaughter and great-granddaughter of Brutus and Suzie, the hippos who lived at Adelaide Zoo for more than 45 years.
Nile hippos are listed as vulnerable in the wild, with an estimated population of between 115,000 and 130,000 individuals in central Africa.
The hippos are not the only new species to be announced for the park recently.
A successful $2 million fundraising campaign will allow three Asian elephants to move in late next year, too.
