After four years of living in the old elephant habitat, Louise, the Honolulu Zoo’s hippopotamus, returned Tuesday to her new and improved digs.
The city said the 27-year-old is “doing extremely well” in the new hippo
habitat, which has an upgraded barn and a new filtration system, all part of
a $3.5 million capital improvement project.
The filtration system cycles the 40,000-gallon pond every 20 minutes and is able to handle hundreds of pounds of waste every day, to keep the water clean for Louise and for visitors to clearly see her.
Mayor Kirk Caldwell said: “Making major improvements to the hippo habitat was a priority for the Honolulu Zoo, and I’m glad that Louise is happy in her refurbished home.
“The zoo continues to make enormous progress under the leadership of Director Linda Santos and the future promises to be very exciting for her and the zoo’s dedicated staff,” he added.
Hippos consume as much as 80 pounds of grass or more a day in the wild, the city said in a news
release.
City spokesman Andrew Pereira did not know how much Louise poops, but said, “It’s quite a lot and she goes quite regularly.”
Louise arrived in 1992 at the Honolulu Zoo from the Denver Zoological Gardens.
The city plans on getting another hippo eventually, but there is no timetable on that, Pereira said, adding that the filtration system had to be tested to ensure it works well.
Louise was moved in January 2015 into the old elephant habitat, where she had access to water, while refurbishing her old home.
Prior to the move, zoo staffers trained her a full year to get into a crate to ready her for the move.