Zoo throws birthday party for oldest hippo in Thailand

Zookeepers threw a birthday party for the oldest hippopotamus in Thailand.

Staff treated Mae Mali, 59, with a giant cake made of her favourite fruits and vegetables at the Khao Kheow Open Zoo in Chonburi province on September 8.

Footage shows the aging mother of 14 shambling over to her colourful birthday treat made with fresh grass, dragonfruit, watermelons, apples, mangoes, bananas, yams, grapes, and carrots.

Visitors, caretakers, and zoo executives sang her a birthday song as she tucked into the feast. Zoo Director Narongwit Chodchoy said the zoo received a 20,000-baht donation to build a new shelter for Mae Mali.

Mae Mali was first brought to Thailand from the Tilburg Zoo in the Netherlands on June 8, 1967, when she was only one year old. She was relocated from Dusit Zoo to Khao Kheow Open Zoo on December 18, 2018.

Mae Mali is said to be in good health and is the oldest hippopotamus in Thailand. Zoo officials believe she could become the oldest hippopotamus in the world if she remains healthy in the coming years.

The record-holder for world's oldest hippopotamus is Bertha, a hippo who lived at the Manila Zoo in the Philippines since its opening in 1959. 

Bertha was estimated to be 65 years old when she died in 2017.

The oldest living hippopotamus in captivity is Lu the Hippo, 64, at the Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park in Florida, the United States.