The Khao Kheow Open Zoo celebrated a very big 55th birthday for Mae Mali, it’s star hippopotamus.
Attaporn Srihayrun, director of the Sriracha zoo, said the Sept. 8 birthday party was part of Khao Kheow’s “Africa Amazing” promotion.
Mae Mali is the oldest hippo in Thailand and a mother of 14.
For the occasion, the zoo prepared a “birthday cake” made of vegetables and fruit like watermelon, Chinese pears, carrots, grapes, bananas, and fresh grass.
Staff and tourists sang the hippo a happy birthday song while she dug into her present.
Mae Mali was gifted to Thailand’s Dusit Zoo by the Tilburg Zoo in the Netherlands in June 1967 and came to Khao Kheow in December 2018. While getting up there in years, she is still healthy.
Mae Mali grins from ear to tiny ear as she enjoys her banana treat.
