The rebuilt home for the hippos at the Taipei Zoo opened on Oct. 21, giving the giant mammals a more spacious and comfortable environment to live and enabling visitors to observe their underwater activities

Taiwan News 
Date: 2017/10/22
By: George Liao, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

TAIPEI (Taiwan News)—The rebuilt home for the hippos at the Taipei Zoo opened on

(Photo courtesy of Taipei Zoo)

Oct. 21, giving the giant mammals a more spacious and comfortable environment to live and enabling visitors to observe their underwater activities, according to the zoo.

Delivering his remarks at the inauguration of the new facility, Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) said the construction of the new habitat for the hippos has taken into consideration of comfort and livability for the animals, and therefore water changes and purification as well as access to ventilation and sunlight were identified as important factors in building the new facility.
Currently, the zoo has 15 hippos (five males and 10 females) and nine pygmy hippos (2 males and 7 females). As hippos are very territorial, they are apt to fight each other to defend their territories. Therefore, the zoo said the new hippo facility is twice as big as the original one, which was 1,500 square meters in area, the zoo said.
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