Pink Hippo Milk?

Image courtesy of Rawich from http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

So this information is from about a year ago. The best part is when I e-mailed Kari at the San Diego Zoo, she said she remembered me. Fantastic!

At the time, I had been working at a job that once I week I sent a person an e-mail reminder asking for a file. Not wanting to have the same borring, hey give me this file, every week, I started putting jokes, food recipeis, and fun facts in the e-mail. One of the e-mails I saw somewhere saying that Hippo Milk was pink. I still posted it in the e-mail but it got my brain juices flowing. Which usually leads me to e-mailing people that would know better than I after a failed Google serach.

Below is my e-mail and the response from the good people at the San Deigo Zoo. Enjoy.

My E-mail:

Hello San Diego Zoo,, I hope that all of your animals are doing well. I am trying to find if a googled fun fact is true or not. I saw something about Hippos have pink milk. I went to your Hippo page and learned about their breeding habits, eating habits, and how they have the blood sweat. However, I saw nothing about having pink milk. Can you confirm or deny if they have pink milk? If they do have pink milk, do you know what causes it to be pink? Is it their diet like Flamingos? Thank you so much for your help with this question!, Shannon C., A very curious person

Their Answer:

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for contacting the San Diego Zoo with your question regarding hippo milk. This is a great question, so we went directly to a Keeper for the answer. According to our Hippo Keeper, Nate, when he sees a milk mustache on our baby hippo Adhama, it is white in color. Hippos do secrete a body oil that is red in color, so it's possible that if the milk were to mix with the body oil, it might appear to be pink. But, as far as we can tell hippo milk is white.

Thanks again for contacting us and please continue to check our website www.sandiegozoo.org for information on your favorite animals as well as news about the San Diego Zoo and San Diego Zoo Safari Park. We hope to have you visit us soon!

Sincerely,

Kari S.

Sr. Administrative Assistant

Collections Husbandry Science Dept.

San Diego Zoo