Friday, 27 December 2013

Birth Control at the Zoo: Vets Meet the Elusive Goal of Hippo Castration

Dec. 20, 2013 — One method for controlling zoo animal populations is male castration. For hippopotami, however, this is notoriously difficult, as the pertinent male reproductive anatomy proves singularly elusive. Veterinarians from the Research Institute of Wildlife Ecology of the University of Veterinary Medicine, Vienna, and colleagues, have demonstrated a successful method for castrating male hippos.

Their results are published in the journal Theriogenology.

Common hippopotami (Hippopotamus amphibius) are vulnerable to extinction in the wild, but reproduce extremely well under captive breeding conditions. 

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