The Honolulu Zoo welcomed Mara, a female hippopotamus, to the African Savanna today.

Mara is 18 years old, weighs approximately 3,610 pounds, and comes to Honolulu from the Los Angeles Zoo. She will join the zoo’s current female resident hippo, Louise, who is 30 years old and came from Denver. Both are on exhibit in the hippo habitat at the African Savanna.

“Today is a very, very exciting moment,” said Honolulu Zoo Director Linda Santos in a video release, “because logistics for bringing in a big animal is really lengthy and [involves] a lot of planning with the various agencies and our partners, so we’re just really excited we were able to pull this off and get a new hippo friend for Louise.”

She said Honolulu Zoo was able to work with the Los Angeles Zoo to successfully relocate Mara to Oahu.

According to the zoo, hippos are native to Africa and the third-largest land mammal in the world, after the elephant and rhinoceros. They have an average life expectancy of up to 50 years. The name “hippopotamus” comes from the ancient Greek for “river horse” and their closest living relatives are cetaceans, which include whales and dolphins, porpoises.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the Hippopotamus amphibius as “vulnerable” on its IUCN Red List.

Honolulu Zoo lost a resident hippo, Rosey, at the age of 25 in July 2014. She was found dead one morning of unknown causes, according to a previous Star-Advertiser story. Necropsy results were inconclusive, according to a Kokua Line column.

In 2019, Honolulu Zoo unveiled a newly renovated hippo habitat with $3.5 million in improvements, including an upgraded barn and filtration system.

Santos thanked the L.A. Zoo staff for accompanying Mara on the transport to Honolulu provided by Pacific Air Cargo, as well as Island Topsoil and the Honolulu Zoo Society for their generous support.

She also thanked the Honolulu Police Department and Hawaii Department of Transportation Airports and Highways divisions for their help in coordinating the logistics and execution of the transit of the hippo to the zoo.