Hippo's murder is mystery at Thailand's Dusit Zoo

BANGKOK, Thailand -- The infant hippo was killed by a jealous adult as he slept, snuggled against his mother. Police launched an investigation, interrogated a suspect and plan lie-detector tests.

The calf, born Sunday at Bangkok's Dusit Zoo, was fatally bitten early Monday by adult hippopotamuses that someone allegedly let loose into his pond on purpose.

The death has dominated Thai newspapers and radio talk shows, with commentators and callers demanding the heads of those responsible.

"It is a shock to all of us. The hippo was just one day old. We never thought someone could go to this length," the chief of Thailand's Zoological Parks Organization, Pisit na Patalung, said Thursday.

Zoo head rivals suspected

Pisit, also head of the Dusit Zoo, looms large in the unfolding mystery.

Newspaper reports have suggested that the killing of the unnamed calf was masterminded by rivals trying to discredit Pisit or to disrupt the appointment of his successor after he retires in October.

Thailand's mass-circulation Thai Rath newspaper published a cartoon contrasting a drawing of offerings of pork and chicken made as a traditional Buddhist prayer offering with another showing the upturned body of a dead baby hippo on a silver platter.

The calf was the 15th offspring of Mae Mali, a Nile hippo donated by the Netherlands more than 30 years ago.

Five hippos attack

To protect Mae Mali and her newborn from attacks, five other adult hippos were moved to a separate enclosure with two iron gates and latches with a guard on duty, Pisit said. Male hippos are known to attack babies born to females other than their mates.

At about 2:30 a.m. Monday, someone apparently opened the latches of the holding pen and let the adult hippos into the area where Mae Mali and her baby were sleeping.

"It was done by someone who knew hippos well and someone who knew that they would attack the baby," Pisit said. He refused to say if he suspected anyone, citing an ongoing police investigation.

The police interrogated the guard Thursday, and Metropolitan Police Bureau Deputy Commissioner Jongrak Jutanont said suspects would be asked to take a lie-detector test. The culprit could face up to seven years in prison on the charge of destroying state property.