Valencia's Bioparc Threw a Joint Birthday Party for Its Hippos — With a Beetroot and Pumpkin Cake

Bioparc Valencia has celebrated the birthdays of its hippopotamuses. Gori has turned six and Serena five. Both hippos were born in May, so the staff at Bioparc decided to combine the celebrations and mark both birthdays on the same day.

The centrepiece of the festivities was a birthday cake made from puréed beetroot, potato, and pumpkin, decorated with the numbers 6 and 5 as well as ornamental touches made from leek, carrot, and pepper. Visitors watched as the hippos enjoyed their "feast" on the beach and dived to retrieve pieces of watermelon. The event is intended to draw attention to the situation facing hippos, which are listed on the IUCN Red List as a "vulnerable species," primarily due to habitat loss and poaching.

Bioparc Valencia is the only place in Spain where hippos can be observed underwater. The first hippo, a female named Rigas, arrived from Valencia's old Viveros zoo. Her son Gori was born during the pandemic, and Serena came from Basel Zoo in Switzerland.

The common hippopotamus is the third-largest land animal on Earth, weighing between 1,500 and 3,000 kg. The current global population stands at between 115,000 and 130,000 individuals. Bioparc participates in the European Endangered Species Programmes (EEP) for both hippopotamus species — the common and the pygmy.