Hazina, the 6-year-old hippopotamus who died at the Calgary Zoo in November after spending more than a day in a crate during a trip from the Denver Zoo, was killed by her own weight, a report released Tuesday concluded.
During the lengthy trip, no one saw Hazina stand, said Dr. Jacques Dancosse, a zoo veterinarian in Canada and a consulting veterinarian for the International Air Transport Association.
“Nobody saw . . . Hazina stand up for almost 29 hours,” said Dancosse. “If she sat . . . in the dog-sitting fashion (but nobody can be sure of that), it is easily understandable that the pressure was very significant on her hind legs all the time. Pressure was also present on her front legs and sternum . . . reinforcing the fact that the bedding was thin beneath her.
“Hippos are not marine mammals,” Dancosse added. “They are well adapted to spend lots of time on earth foraging and resting. The fact that they often move prevents them to be affected by myopathy . . . or killed by their own weight.”
Dancosse concluded that the weight caused oxygen and nutrient deprivation throughout her muscles setting off a fatal chemical reaction in the animal.
In Dancosse’s official report and in comments by the two zoos, it was noted that since 1966, the Denver Zoo had transported 14 hippos without incident.
But Tuesday officials said that there was a big difference between Hazina and the hippos that had gone before her.
All of the previous animals were under two years of age and weighed significantly less than Hazina, they said.
In addition, Hazina had been given hormones to reduce her fertility. Those hormones, said Dancosse, may have caused her to shoot up from 2,400 pounds in 2006 to 3,200 pounds in October 2007, which may have increased pressure on her legs and exacerbated the situation.
Dancosse also said he found the narrow width of the transfer crate troubling, as well as the fact it did not have a nonslip floor, which may have made it difficult for the hippo to stand.
Howard Pankratz: 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com
