A 58-year-old hippopotamus who was the longest living animal resident at the Denver Zoo and one of its celebrities was euthanized Monday as his age left him in declining health.
Bertie, or Bert as he was known, was also the oldest hippo in accredited North American zoos. Hippos live 30 to 40 years in the wild and usually up to about 50 years in zoos.
“After witnessing a significant decline in his quality of life due to his advanced age, staff made the difficult decision to humanely euthanize him,” the zoo said in a news release.
Bertie’s caretakers had kept an eye on him and as of late noted that his appetite level had decreased and he was less consistently interested in training sessions with zookeepers, the release said.
“He became more reluctant to leave his pool and showed some difficulty walking,” the zoo’s release said. “Veterinarians were limited in how they could treat him as he had not responded well to medications.”
Bertie came to Denver from New York City’s Central Park Zoo on Dec. 16, 1958, when he was 2 years old. He was the first hippo ever housed at the Denver Zoo, and over his lifetime fathered 29 hippopotamuses.
“This is never an easy decision, but it was the right one,” Scott Larsen, the zoo’s vice president of veterinary medicine, said in a statement.
The zoo said that throughout the years, Bertie had been one of the most documented and popular animals at the attraction. Bertie came to the zoo as a donation from Arthur and Helen Johnson, longtime zoo supporters, who bid on him in an auction and secured travel arrangements for him.
“In the last couple of years, the zoo even held special ‘BertDay’ celebrations in the days around his birthday, where countless guests signed his birthday cards and watched him eat his favorite treats,” the release said.
The zoo is home to one other hippopotamus: Mahali, Bertie’s 12-year-old son.
Sean Andersen-Vie, a zoo spokesman, said goodbye cards and memorial boards have been placed outside the exhibit where Bertie lived so guests can remember the hippo.
Bertie’s body will be sent to Colorado State University, where zoo staff and the college will perform a necropsy. From there, Bertie will be cremated and his bones donated to the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, according to Andersen-Vie.
Jesse Paul: 303-954-1733, jpaul@denverpost.com or twitter.com/JesseAPaul
