The post said Gen-chan first arrived at their zoo from the Africam Safari animal park in Mexico when she was five years old, and was declared as a mal

Male hippo in Japan zoo found to be female after 7 years

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2024-04-23 21:00:07

The post said Gen-chan first arrived at their zoo from the Africam Safari animal park in Mexico when she was five years old, and was declared as a male.

A spokeswoman for the Osaka Tennoji Zoo told AFP on Tuesday that typical male hippo behaviour that Gen-chan was not displaying included making courtship calls to female hippos, or scattering faeces around while defecating with a propeller-like tail motion in order to mark territory.

According to the Mainichi newspaper, the zoo's vice director Kiyoshi Yasufuku said: "We recognise the importance of confirming the sex, and we want to ensure that such mistakes will not happen again."