Rejected, Bubbles slips away

Press, 7 April 1979, Page 1

Rejected, Bubbles slips away

A hippopotamus calf born at the Auckland Zoo on Thursday was found dead early yesterday morning, only hours after staff had checked his condition, the Press Association reports.

A keeper, Mrs Jacque Brown, is shown giving Bubbles a bath soon after his birth. A disappointed zoo

director, Mr D. Wood, said the stress of events straight after the birth had probably had a serious effect on the 38kilogram youngster. Within minutes of birth, Bubbles had been pushed about by his cantakerous grandmother, rejected by his young mother, swept from the hippo enclosure on a fast current, and rescued by a keeper.

The head of the hippo section, Mr D. 1.. PepperEdwards had to plunge into the Meola Creek in the waterfowl area to retrieve the determined calf, which had managed to swim between the enclosure grilles. Mr Pepper-Edwards said it was decided to be too risky to return Bubbles to the hippo enclosure because he had been rejected

by his mother, Faith. The maternal bond was apparently destroyed just after birth when his grandmother, Bonnie — a well known troublemaker in the colony — pushed between the mother and calf. Three hippo calves born last year, including one to Faith, were savaged to death by the rest of the colony' within hours of their birth.