A two-tonne male hippopotamus escaped from Kaohsiung's Shoushan Zoo Friday morning, seriously injuring another hippo, a zookeeper and avoiding capture during a six-hour standoff with city government officials.
The hippo escaped from its pen during a fight with three other males following feeding time on Friday.
When the zookeeper was attending to an injured male hippo, one escaped by climbing on another animal's back and jumping over the wall. It then attacked zookeeper Chiu-Wu Kuei-hsiang (
PHOTO: CHANG CHUNG-YI, LIBERTY TIMES
Chiu-Wu was sent for emergency surgery to a hospital in Kaohsiung where she is now in stable condition.
After running 200m and knocking over a scooter, the hippo charged into the zoo's bird garden and was surrounded by zoo employees.
After six hours evading 100 zookeepers and city government employees, it was shot with a stun gun dozens of times but failed to calm down.
In the afternoon, veterinarians from Taipei arrived with a high-powered stun gun and subdued the hippo with three shots. It was then hauled back to its pen with a crane.
The veterinarians called the hippo "highly aggressive," and ordered zookeepers to keep the animal under observation for the next two days.
Zoo officials kept the hippo isolated yesterday, telling TV news reporters they feared for its "psychological state." This is the first time an animal has escaped from the zoo during its 20 years of operations.
No visitors were in the zoo at the time, as it has been closed to the public since the last foot-and-mouth disease scare in February.
It reopened to the public yesterday.
Kaohsiung City Government has ordered an investigation into the incident.
‘NO SECURITY RISK’: The Railway Bureau reassured the public that the technicians’ activities were limited to technical guidance and did not involve sensitive systems The Railway Bureau yesterday said it had invited eight Chinese technicians to assist with an airport MRT construction project. The bureau issued the confirmation after an Internet user said Chinese nationals had entered the construction zone of Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport’s Terminal 3 project. They asked why “individuals from an enemy state” were allowed access to such a major national infrastructure project, which raised serious concerns over Taiwan’s industrial safety, sensitive systems and information security. The bureau’s Northern Region Engineering Branch Office said subcontractor Taiwan Handle Industrial Co (台灣手把工業) of the Taoyuan airport MRT’s “Contract No. CU05 Project A14 Station Civil, MEP &
The National Chungshan Institute of Science and Technology yesterday showcased its locally developed variants of the Vision 60 robotic patrol dog, which it plans to deploy on the nation’s outlying territories in the South China Sea. The variants were produced under the Joint Lab project — created by the institute and domestic companies — and assembled with domestically produced motors, lenses and artificial intelligence (AI) systems alongside licensed tech from the US, Missile and Rocket Systems Research Division deputy director Jen Kuo-kang (任國光) told the media event at a military base in Taipei’s Dazhi (大直) area. Taiwan has built up its strengths
NOT IMMEDIATE: Taiwan has a chance to appeal the proposed 10 percent tariff before it starts, while other countries face a 12.5 percent tariff from the trade office Taiwan is among 60 economies determined by the US to have failed to impose or enforce a ban on the importation of goods produced with forced labor, according to a notice released on Tuesday by the Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR), which proposed imposing an additional 10 percent or more tariff on them. The USTR in a statement said that following an investigation, it had determined under Section 301 of the Trade Act of 1974 that the failure of the 60 economies to impose and effectively enforce a prohibition on the importation of goods produced with forced labor is
TIT-FOR-TAT: The US allegedly revoked the visa of a Chinese national working at Xinhua News Agency in the US in response to Beijing’s expulsion of Vivian Wang The Presidential Office yesterday condemned China for expelling a New York Times correspondent from Beijing following the newspaper’s interview with President William Lai (賴清德), saying the move highlighted Beijing’s suppression of press freedom and its threat to international news media. Taiwan has noted a series of recent incidents in which Beijing used similar tactics to “threaten and pressure international media outlets and journalists,” Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said in a statement. “This concerns not only press freedom and freedom of expression, but also the safety of journalists, and Taiwan and relevant partners are paying close attention to the situation,” she
RSS