Pygmy hippo could be tip of iceberg

MATT CUNNINGHAM and ANNIE SANSON

November 17th, 2009
CUTE LITTLE FELLA: Kumbe - thought to be the brother of the pygmy hippo shot at Douglas Daly on the weekend - was one of four pygmy hippos moved to Tipperary Station from the Pearl Coast Zoo at Broome in 1991

CUTE LITTLE FELLA: Kumbe - thought to be the brother of the pygmy hippo shot at Douglas Daly on the weekend - was one of four pygmy hippos moved to Tipperary Station from the Pearl Coast Zoo at Broome in 1991

STRANGE animal sightings have been commonplace in the area where a pygmy hippopotamus was shot on the weekend, locals said yesterday.

Douglas Daly residents say they have seen strange animals wandering around for years.

"We drove past there once and saw a couple of deer and about 500m away there was a thing - too big for a pig," one resident said.

"We thought it must have been a baby buffalo that looked a bit strange, but looking back now it easily could have been the hippo, as that's how the thing looked like - but you don't expect to see a hippo in the Australian bush, so we didn't worry about the 'little weird looking buffalo' too much."

Nico Courtney accidentally shot the pygmy hippo after mistaking it for a wild pig while out hunting on Saturday night.

The hippo is believed to have escaped from the Tipperary Station Wildlife Sanctuary - then owned by multi-millionaire Warren Anderson - after it was closed in 2003.

Most of the animals were moved to a zoo in Queensland, but at least one was left behind.

The station's former curator of operations Kevin Langham left the sanctuary three years before operations were wound up.

He said he was shocked the hippo had been left behind.

"It's rather strange that they would have left it behind," he said.

"The area they were kept in was quite small and the (hippos) were very territorial. Even it it had escaped it wouldn't have gone very far and wouldn't have been a very difficult animal to capture.

"The other interesting thing is, if they are out there, what else is out there?"

Former zookeeper Christine Baker said she believed the hippo was one of four that were brought to Tipperary Station from the Pearl Coast Zoo at Broome in 1991.

She said there was a breeding pair and two juveniles bought to Tipperary after the WA zoo closed down.

"This is probably the daughter, who would be 18," she said. "I had no idea that any of the stock at Tipperary had escaped."

But former Tipperary Station manager David Warriner, who took over after the sanctuary closed, said it was well known that a hippo had escaped. "It's been there for years obviously," he said.

"It escaped out of the zoo while they were shifting all the animals.

"It was just assumed that it had died, but there was one missing when they shifted all the animals."

Mr Anderson could not be contacted yesterday.

http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2009/11/17/101511_ntnews.html