Tanja the hippo is back

01augustus2012
Source: artis.nl
Deceased animals don't usually return to their zoo home. But Tanja the hippopotamus is back in Artis, the Royal Amsterdam Zoo, two years after her death. The 'stuffed' animal is featured in a hippopotamus exhibition.
Tanja was born at Artis, and died after living there for a good 49 years. Visitors adored her. After her death in December 2009, the hippopotamus enclosure became a monument to Tanja. People brought drawings, letters and works of art, and spoke of ‘the death of a citizen of Amsterdam’.

The hippopotamus exhibition at Artis is about Tanja, other Artis hippos through the years, and hippos in the wild. Artis was the first zoo in Europe to see a hippo be born and also survive; many of the 73 hippos that lived at Artis were also born there. Tanja was the last Artis hippopotamus; after her death, the zoo chose not to keep these animals.

Another element of the exhibition is the relationship between hippos and humans, and how this relationship is experienced in various cultures. One example is found in African fairy tales, in which hippos play a prominent role. The Artis website features the fairy tale ‘How hippo lost his hair’.