honoluluadvertiser.com

Sponsored by:

Comment, blog & share photos

Log in | Become a member
The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 10:35 p.m., Monday, September 22, 2008

Cleo the hippo dies at Honolulu Zoo

Associated Press

Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

In 1959 at 4 years of age Cleo still seems to be a child but this will be the year she becomes a bride.

Honolulu Advertiser file photo

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

First photo of Cleopatra and her new baby on June 16, 1967.

Honolulu Advertiser file photo

spacer spacer
Hawaii news photo - The Honolulu Advertiser

One-year-old Kiboko, right, a new arrival at Honolulu Zoo, is welcomed by Cleo, who acts as a kind of surrogate mother to the baby hippo on April 21, 1991.

Honolulu Advertiser file photo

spacer spacer

One of Honolulu Zoo's oldest animals has died.

Cleopatra, known as Cleo, was the second oldest hippopotamus in captivity in the U.S.

A zoo veterinarian put her to sleep on Saturday because she was suffering from growing complications of old age.

The 3,500-pound hippo could no longer stand on her own.

She was just a few weeks shy of her 53rd birthday.

Cleo will be sent to a university lab for research and study.