Today in Michigan history: Circus hippopotamus escapes into the Detroit River

DETROIT – On today, practically 160 years in the past, a circus hippopotamus escaped his cage and jumped into the Detroit River, in line with Michigan Day by Day, an internet site run by a retired Michigan State College librarian

Because of the weight of the elephants and the hippopotamuses, the animals needed to be transported on a separate boat when the circus was making its method from Buffalo to Detroit. When the boat was simply six miles south of Downtown, the hippopotamus escaped from his cage and jumped overboard into the Detroit River.

His coach, an Egyptian man named Ali, was clearly distraught at this sight and reacted swiftly. Taking with him on a rowboat a big black mastiff, he got down to seize the fugitive hippo.

The aforementioned canine was truly this hippopotamus’s companion. Supposedly the mastiff had been educated to sleep within the cage with the hippo which led them to be the most effective of mates.

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The canine jumped in after his buddy the hippopotamus and led him to the shore. Ali was in a position to safe him on the shore and proceed to Detroit.

Accounts of this occasion report that the hippopotamus was in tremendous situation after his leisurely swim.

Though this story appears unbelievable, this isn’t the primary time the Detroit River has briefly inhabited non-native species. Slippery the ocean lion apparently escaped a marine park in Ontario and made his method all the way down to Sandusky, Ohio, by way of the Detroit River. Together with Slippery, child alligators have additionally been discovered within the waters of the river.