FEAST OR FAMINE

Binturong - Paris Zoo, February 2024

World Hippo Day is celebrated annually on 15 February.    I love the hippo. While I was in Berlin this week, I visited the Pygmy Hippo at the Berlin Zoo in Germany, where my love for the hippo began many years before. At the Berlin Zoo, there once was the famous female Nile Hippo called “Bulettte” – which means meatballs. She was born in 1952 in the Leipzig Zoo before soon being transported to the Berlin Zoo. She died in 2005 at the age of 53 – but gave birth to 20 young in her lifetime.  Pygmy Hippos at Berlin Zoo. Photographer Martina Nicolls, February 2024   My Hippo alert team has updated me on the hippo population at the Adelaide Zoo in South Australia, where I grew up.   Poor Brutus the Nile Hippo died on 7 May 2020 at the age of 55 at the Adelaide Zoo (featured photo above). He was originally called Albert when he was born at the Taronga Zoo in Sydney in 1965. When he arrived in Adelaide in 1975, his named changed to Brutus. He arrived with his partner Su...

Get notification of all posts from Feast or Famine and all my websites – and   more information – on my Substack writers’ platform called NEARING COMPLETION . Here’s the link to the latest post  TRACKING: MID-FEB 2024 – relatives and revelations.    

Cambodia’s oldest elephant, Sambo, died on 19 October 2023, and the country is  mourning.     She was the oldest elephant in Cambodia, aged 63, and survived the Khmer Rouge regime of the 1970s. When the Khmer Rouge took power, Sambo’s owner Sin Sorn had to hand her over to the Khmer Rouge authorities, with five other elephants. They all died in the poor living conditions, with Sambo the only survivor.   Sin Sorn and Sambo reunited at the end of the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979 – she was in the mountains and very weak.    She served the local tourism industry at the Wat Phnom site in Phnom Penh from 1980 until 2012, when she got a foot infection. She retired from active duty in 2014.    In 2014, the American government, through its foreign aid department, USAID, helped move Sambo from Phnom Penh to her retirement home in Mondulkiri, where she spent her remaining nine years surrounded by the lush green forests she loved.   Sadly, the Elephant Val...

The Paris Zoo in the Jardin des Plantes were expecting two new additions at the end of March 2020—18-month-old Tasmanian Devils from Australia. However, the pandemic and lockdowns delayed their arrival. They have finally arrived and, after quarantine, they are in their new enclosure.   A large enclosure has been specially built to accommodate the Tasmanian Devils – with wooded features, various tall grasses, open areas, shelters, and a water point.   Tasmanian Devils  ( Sarcophilus harrisii ) are marsupial mammals from the island state of Tasmania in Australlia . They are described as animals with black fur, red ears, thick tail, long whiskers, sharp teeth, huge mouth, and a shrill cry.    Due to the delay, the enclosure was temporarily housing several Kirk’s Dik-Diks from Africa, but they have been relocated to another enclosure.    MARTINA NICOLLS MartinaNicollsWebsite Rainy Day Healing Martinasblogs    Publications Facebook Paris Website P...