

A two-meter long hippopotamus jumped out of a moving truck as it was being transported from Miaoli county to a farm in Taichung in central Taiwan. It then hit a parked car and landed in the middle of the street. With its teeth knocked out and severe blood loss, the hippo lay paralyzed on the ground for hours with tears flowing from its eyes.



Upon hearing the sound of the impact and seeing the large creature, the owner of the parked car said he “thought it was a dinosaur”.



Officials from Miaoli’s agriculture bureau say that the hippopotamus is not a state-protected animal in Taiwan, but each case of fostering should be reported and listed.



The owner of the hippopotamus later arrived on the scene and said that it was legally imported and given as a gift to Taichung county. The county government then re-gifted it to his farm where it has been for 6 to 7 years.

The hippo was relocated to a pond in Yuanli 3 days ago due to some maintenance work on his farm, and is likely to havehave panicked for some reason on its home. The owner notified the vet and called for backup vehicles. The hippo then got tranquilized and sent back to the farm.



The window of the truck from which the hippopotamus jumped

Locals have asked why the hippopotamus was not tranquilized earlier, and why it was not transported in a safer way.







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[Images from Apple Daily By Leia Luo