Hippos Enjoying the Pool

Traditionally, the Budapest public baths opened on May 1st, and this was also when the hippos’ bathing season began. However, instead of relying on the calendar, we pay more attention to the actual weather. When it’s still chilly, our hippos have access to the heated indoor pool inside the Elephant House. As soon as the weather warms up a bit, we let them out into the outdoor enclosure, but during this time, only the indoor pool is filled with water, so they can come inside whenever they want.

Sometimes they even wander down to the empty outdoor pool, and it’s not uncommon to hear a few angry visitor comments about why we’re keeping these water-loving giants “dry”. Of course, those who say that are probably unaware of the indoor pool.
Once the daytime temperatures are consistently warm enough, the “bathing season” can officially begin, and we fill the outdoor pool, which was built for the hippos in 1932. This year, we were able to do this as early as April. However, in late April, the weather turned cool again, so we had to pause the outdoor swimming for a few weeks. By early May, though, the pleasant weather returned, and we were able to fill the outdoor pool again, much to the delight of our hippos.

Our Zoo holds the record for continuously housing Nile hippos. We have been keeping hippos since 1893, which means we’ve cared for these animals for over 131 years. There are two or three other zoos in the world where the first hippo arrived earlier, but they had periods without hippos. However, no other zoo in the world can claim to have worked with hippos continuously for as long as we have.

Our current hippos, Jusztina and Tücsök, continue this long tradition, and both have been residents of our Zoo for decades. Both were born here: Jusztina in 1994, and her mother, Tücsök, in 1973. Tücsök recently celebrated her 51st birthday, but the big celebration was last year on her 50th, for which we made a short film.