- Other names: Nigbwe, water cow
- Country reported: Côte d'Ivoire, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone
The pygmy hippopotamus (Wikipedia; Choeropsis liberiensis or Hexaprotodon liberiensis) is a species of small hippopotamid found in West Africa.
Early reports of the animal, in the mid-19th Century, misidentified it as a species of wild hog. It was formally described from skeletal remains in 1843 or 1849, and the first live specimen was captured by British explorers in 1873, but died shortly after arrival. A live individual was finally exhibited to the public in 1913, having been captured by an explorer sent out by Carl Hagenbeck.[1]
Notes and references
- ↑ Coleman, Loren & Clark, Jerome (1999) Cryptozoology A to Z