They’re back! Everyone’s favorite castaways are off on another adventure, this time to Africa. Gloria the hippo, Melman the giraffe, Alex the lion, and Marty the zebra, accompanied by various and sundry creatures, crash land their plane on the vast plains of Africa where they meet wild versions of themselves.
A pod of two dozen carved gemstone hippos are now making their home at Hippo Mojo. They come in two sizes, large and small, and measure about 2 1/4″ and 1 1/2″ respectively. All the colors of the rainbow are represented in this herd, along with spots, stripes, and sparkles.
Carved Stone Hippo Figurine
We hope you’ll buy one or two for your favorite hippo collector. They make great holiday or special occasion gifts. Or indulge your own passion for hippos and buy one for yourself!
Once upon a time there was a hippo called Alfredito who had a tooth ache. Luckily for Alfredito, he lived in a zoo and one day the zoo’s vet noticed Alfredito’s dull, quiet behavior and discovered the hippo’s infected tusk. But the Central American vet did not know how to sedate the three-thousand pound animal; nor did he know how to treat the incisor. So the vet called another vet who lived in the U.S. She called all her colleagues to ask if anyone knew how to do a root canal on a hippo, but no one did. So she plotted a course of action, packed her medical bags, and headed to the National Zoo of El Salvador.
In case you were wondering, it’s very difficult to anesthetize a hippo. It’s paramount that the hippo land on his sternum when it succumbs to the drug in order to keep his breathing passages open. Further, he cannot be allowed to enter the water after being darted for fear of drowning. After all, hippos are very heavy and difficult to move.
Alfredito was a friendly hippo whose keeper daily entered the exhibit with him and placed heads of cabbage directly into his mouth, an unusual arrangement for this often temperamental species. He was very popular at the zoo.
The American vet darted Alfredito three times before he sunk into sleep. The dental technician started work on the tooth while the two vets monitored the hippo’s respiration and heartbeat. After a dramatic moment when Alfredito stopped breathing and was injected with a respiratory stimulant and a reversal agent, the work was done. Alfredito was closely observed for the next day but recovered well. Soon he was back in his starring role as head hippo.
This is a true story that appeared in “The Rhino with Glue-on Shoes and other surprising true stories of zoo vets and their patients” edited by Lucy H. Spelman and Ted Y. Mashima.
See the author’s website: rhinowithglueonshoes.com
We are pleased to announce the arrival of hippo book charms, ornaments, pin cards, and magnet frames from Pilgrim Imports, a Wisconsin wholesale importer. Two of the items are shown below and the rest appear on our shopping site.
Roller Skating Hippo Gift Card
Roller Skating Metal Hippo Ornament
Pilgrim Imports is committed to building and supporting communities of craftsmen while purchasing items at a fair wage. Read more about Pilgrim below.
Pilgrim Imports originated over 23 years ago in a village outside of Chiang Mai, Thailand. There, craftspeople and their families gather for an annual celebration that has become known as Pilgrim Family Day. The day features food, friends, and fun. Spirits are high as sports jerseys and t-shirts for the Pilgrim-sponsored teams are distributed along with special gifts and announcements.
You would barely guess that two decades ago this was a chronically poor area; families accustomed to closeness were commonly forced to separate for survival as children went to work in Bangkok’s factories and tourist trades. Traditional village life deteriorated in the face of poverty.
No longer do the villagers consider sending their kids away to the big city. Now, over 400 neighbors in this rural land work together to produce the art pieces Pilgrim buyers and customers love. They are able to remain in their homeland and utilize traditional metalworking skills.
Pilgrim continues to draw ever more members into its extended family. Just this year, two new master craftsmen and their families came on board, bringing the total of master artisans to fifteen.
This is how it should be, for there are many tasks that need to be completed on the Thai end to create Pilgrim’s adorable ornaments, pins, and jewelry. Fortunately, all of these jobs are honest, clean, and economical. No one thinks of dumping trash in rivers or landfills because the villagers work right where they live. No lead or any other dangerous chemicals are used in the products (although children should still take care when handling the pins and other sharp objects).
Besides generally improving quality of life for hundreds, the work Pilgrim offers set other improvements in motion. For instance, the village’s local grade school received a paved road, computers and clean drinking water. The Thai Department of Education cited this once destitute place of learning as a model for rural schooling.
The Thai villagers are glad for the opportunity to improve the lives of their children. These are people who cherish family, food, and friendship; they are welcoming and overflowing with unforgettable hospitality and kindness. Like us, they relish special occasions such as festivals, farmers markets, social gatherings, dinners, and sporting events.
More importantly, these Thai people are proud to preserve their village traditions and happy to be close to each other. They appreciate the work which sustains their way of life, and they are pleased to learn that others enjoy the projects they create. Look for the light of admirable people inside of every Pilgrim product, and we will keep “working together for good” to bring it to you.
Okay, so hippos don’t make the best pets. They are big. They are aggressive. They are hungry. Only a few hippos have successfully made the transition from wild, dangerous animal to approachable zoo resident. But what about pygmy hippos? They are small and cute and seem more like little pigs than their larger cousins. Just check out this video to see how cute they are.
Hippo Halloween!
A 65-pound bundle of hippo joy has been delivered to the Zoo of Northwest Florida. Named Kayin, which is Swahili for ‘long-awaited child,’ the calf was born at the zoo on October 3rd. The baby is healthy but has not yet been identified as a girl or a boy as zookeepers have been unable to approach him with his protective mother hovering nearby.
“He’s just a cute little butterball,” said Danyelle Lantz, executive director of The Zoo. She went on to report that both mom and baby are doing well. “They’re all happy and the baby has been out of the water and he’s nursing well.”
Kayin’s parents, mom Cleo and dad Kiboko, have had a calf before. Their previous baby, Niles, was born on Christmas Day 2005, but it was killed by its father last summer. The Zoo plans to take measures to protect Kayin as he or she ages by adding a third sleeping area and dividing the water area to separate the mother and calf from the father.
Lantz said plans to renovate the hippo exhibit are in the fundraising stage and the zoo is searching for corporate sponsorship as well as individual donations to reach their $10,000 goal.
Visitor can come see the new baby and his parents on the zoo’s train ride and will be able to see him grow up. The 65-pound calf could eventually grow as heavy as 4,000 pounds.
See the zoo website at http://www.thezoonorthwestflorida.org/.
I love the hippo in this video. I had no idea hippos would roll upside down in the water!
We just got in a charming collection of pouches, totes, and keychains in black and white graphic hippo patterns made by Bungle Bear Designs. The totes are the perfect size for carrying your knitting, library books, or other projects. You can stuff your mail into a tote and open it while attending your child’s soccer game. The pouches come in various sizes and are all lined with a contrasting checked fabric and have a zipper enclosure to keep those small items in place. I use these small pouches in my purse for loose items like makeup, pens, tissues, etc. Then when I switch purses, I just pull out my pouches and plunk them into the new purse - easy and quick! The uses for these pouches are endless. You can keep jewelry in them for travel, or fill them with makeup or first aid items for the car, or use them to store and organize small craft items or office supplies.
Are you the kind of person who loses keys? With these hippo print key fobs, you will never lose your keys again! The sturdy cotton hippo fabric opens up to slide over your hand, becoming a key chain bracelet! Never fumble in your purse for keys again!
Look for these items to be posted to the Hippo Mojo shop very soon.
So for some reason this guy named Brady Barr, who has his own show on the National Geographic Channel, decides to dress up like a hippo and infiltrate a herd of same in order to swipe some sweat off their bodies, all in the name of research. Apparently scientists are interested in analyzing hippo sweat for its cancer-fighting and sun-protecting properties. Also apparently, no one has been able to obtain hippo sweat from any of the hippos in captivity in our national zoos so they called in an expert. Brady Barr is a herpetologist, which I guess makes him uniquely qualified to steal hippo sweat, although I’m not quite sure how, since herpetology is the study of reptiles and amphibians. But whatever.
So he builds this elaborate case that really does look like a hippo, at least to me. He gets inside and plonks himself down near a river where wild hippos are hanging out. A male hippo roars at him. Inside the hippo, Barr is feeling tense as he can’t see outside without his video monitors. He also is feeling rather sick, as he has coated the entire outside of his hippo costume with real, live hippo dung. He starts gagging and dry heaving inside the costume and I think he may have actually vomited. It was hilarious. I don’t think he ever even got any hippo sweat, but it sure made for an entertaining show. See the video for yourself below.