Halloween birthday for Calgary Zoo hippo Lobi

The Calgary Zoo celebrated Lobi the hippo’s 16th birthday this Halloween.

The hippo’s birthday celebration included pumpkins, treats, and children and parents dressing up for the party.

“All the kids come to the zoo with the different costumes — and the adults too. There are lots of adults that dress up as well,” said Mona Keith, the animal care supervisor of the zoo’s African Savanah. “So we can do a special presentation for the hippos to get all that extra special food. It’s just fun for everybody. It’s fun for us as well.”

Hippos live to their mid-to-late 40s, according to Keith. Sparky, Libo’s grandmother, celebrated as well, and she is 35 years old.

“It’s not a huge milestone — it is for him because he gets extra treats today,” Keith said. “He’s still a fairly young guy.”

Lobi is named after a group of people, the Lobi, who lived around the White Chow Sanctuary in Ghana. Keith says it’s also a Calgary Zoo sponsor.

The birthday boy was born at Quebec’s Granby Zoo (Zoo de Granby) in 2006 and that zoo is also where his parents live.

Kiboko, Lobi’s father, was born at the Calgary Zoo and moved out to the Quebec zoo. Keith says Lobi moved back to Calgary when he was five to keep Sparky company.

“Zoos collaborate with each other, [and] we will move animals, keep the genetics strong, and move them around. The Granby Zoo, the Toronto Zoo, we do lots of stuff with those facilities for sure,” Keith said.

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The Wilder Institute says one hippo can weigh up to 3,200 kilograms, or 7,055 lbs, which amounts to half of the Calgary Stampeder’s roster.

A hippo is a vulnerable species according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species assessment.

The IUCN says there are around 115,000 to 130,000 hippos in the world. The union saw a decrease in the population from 1996, which led to a change in its species assessment in 2006, going from “lower risk/least concern,” to “vulnerable.”

Hippos are located in various countries in Africa, including Chad, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Guinea.

The primary threats to hippos, according to the IUCN Red List assessment, are habitat loss, degradation and illegal and “unregulated hunting for meat and ivory.”

-With files from Nick Blakeney