nope, we don't have hippos at my zoo; however, I can most definitely assure you that they are just as terrifying as you would think a mouth living in a swamp would be.

the scariest is hard to say because I generally feel rather safe at work despite being around elephants and rhinos and great apes, but occasionally when I'm near big cats I realize very suddenly just how quickly and easily they could rip me to pieces. the recent news from Florida of a keeper being mauled by a tiger really hit everyone here hard - the whole zoo community, really. it's sad, but it's a good reminder of why we do the time-consuming safety practices we do. I was in one of the big cats' viewing areas when the cat was locked inside its holding area and a keeper called to ask if I was still there, as they wanted to let the cat out into the viewing area. sometimes I think about how if they had been assumptive about my position, I could be dead within seconds. it's definitely made everyone much more serious about safety, and we're already very obsessive about it to begin with.