Pygmy hippo shot in NT

ALYSSA BETTS

November 16th, 2009


NO MISTAKE: Unfortunately the shot animal was a pygmy hippo, not a pig

A PYGMY hippopotamus has been shot dead during a pig hunting expedition in the Territory.

The hippo is normally native to the swamps of west Africa, in particular Liberia.

Instead, this one - estimated to be about 250kg - was shot while roaming the bush of the Douglas Daly, 200km south of Darwin.

This is about 16,000km away from Liberia.

It is believed the female hippo is an old escapee from Tipperary Station, from when it used to be an exotic animal reserve.

This means it has been poking about the Douglas Daly for the past five years.

Nico Courtney, 27, was out spotlighting for pigs with his mate Rusty on a station in the Douglas Daly district on Saturday night.

"It was about 1am and running away from us - from the tail end it just looked like a big pig," the station worker said.

"We got out, had a look at it, and thought 'that's not a pig, it's a hippo'.

"Then we thought 'you don't get hippos in Australia'."

The pair thought it might be a baby hippo - and then naturally started wondering, as they stood in the middle of dark scrub, "where the hell" its mum and dad might be.

Mr Courtney said he rang a few mates to tell them what happened.

"They told me to go to bed," he said. "So I thought I'd better call the boss, and he said 'no it couldn't be'."

They both decided to get some shuteye and "reassess the situation in the morning".

But it was still a hippo come daylight.

Mr Courtney's boss, Gordon Coward, reckons the hoofer is from Tipperary Station.

"I heard all sorts of funny stories of break outs and people kept saying 'look out for giraffes in the paddock', but I didn't think much of them."

Tipperary Station - which is about 50km from Douglas Daly - was turned into an exotic wildlife sanctuary by its former owner, millionaire Warren Anderson.

Mr Anderson eventually began trying to sell the animals - which included rhinoceroses, hippopotamuses, giraffes, zebras and deer - back in 2003 after selling his interest in the station.

But some of the planned transfers were caught up in a legal wrangle between the Territory Government and Mr Anderson.

The hippo's carcass is now being kept in a cold room at the Douglas Daly Research Farm.