Dusit Zoo celebrates 50th birthday of Mae Mali

BANGKOK, Sept 24 – A 50th birthday celebration of “Mae Mali”, the second longest-living hippopotamus in Asia, was held on September 23 at Dusit Zoo in Thailand’s capital city of Bangkok. Pitak Ounsorn, deputy director of Dusit Zoo, aka Khao Din Wana, presided over the opening of yesterday’s celebrative event that featured a range of activities, including an animal parade, and a feast of fruits, bread, and vegetables for Mae Mali and her niece, a younger 17-year-old hippo, named Makham. At the age of 50 years old, Mae Mali claimed to be the longest-living hippo in Thailand and the second in Asia. Sompong Sawasdinam, a Dusit Zoo caretaker who has taken care of Mae Mali for more than 13 years, said a hippo’s lifespan only averages 40 years, but Mae Mali is living longer than that. The 50-year-old hippo is equivalent to a 100-year-old person, so it requires very much attention, he said. (TNA)