At the Ragunan Zoo, Jakarta, Indonesia, the Nile-Hippo-Family is sharing the premises with a few Pygmy Hippos. Not that they live together, the Pygmies have their own enclosure. If you look at the Conservation Status on Wikipedia, you will see that the Hippopotamus is classified as: Vulnerable. The Pygmies however are: Endangered. They live in the forests and swamps of West Africa, but their numbers decline. Mainly because of loss of their habitat. I hardly got to know them (I even forgot their names), as they are very shy. On one occasion I could touch one of them, and I noticed they felt more "slimy" than any of the Nile Hippos. Like their Nile cousins, they like sweet potatoes as snacks, but never came too close to the fence, so I always ended up throwing some potatoes in their direction... Taking photographs of them was not easy, always far away, and almost the same color as the mud they were standing in. But most of the time they were hiding under water. Fortunately, some yellow leaves give this photo a little bit of color. It looks like they are about to kick each other (want to join them, David? :-)), but they were rubbing noses and saying "Hi" to each other.
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