Hippopotamus in Manitoba?
Posted by: Loren Coleman on September 19th, 2010
Halifax Herald
Halifax, Nova Scotia
July 30, 1885
A HIPPOPOTAMUS IN MANITOBA
One day recently, while fishing from the bank of the river, John Bryan observed a very strange monster swimming in the river some distance below him. Mr. Bryan’s attention was first attracted to the point where the monster was disporting itself by a sound which resembled escaping steam, and he expected to see a steamboat coming up the river. Imagine his surprise, however, to see swimming about what he first thought was a cow, but which on clear inspection proved to be a large monster, the like of which he had never seen or heard of before. The beast swam from one side of the river to the other at a terrific rate, throwing up the water like a steamboat. Then it swam down the river a short distance, then up again, and then disappeared beneath the surface of the water, leaving a vortex of water behind like a whirlpool. Bryan says the animal looked to be larger than a horse, and had a head something like a hippopotamus. It was of a pale, yellowish color under the neck and dark brown on the back, and showed considerable of its body above water. – Emerson International.
See also the hippo in BC report from 1928, here.
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Loren Coleman no longer writes for Cryptomundo. His archived posts remain here at Cryptomundo.
Since 1928 they say
The Hippopotamus has held sway
In Manitoba’s lakes and streams
But all the while the hippo dreams
Of Africa’s far distant streams
Which steam so warmly in the sun
THAT’S the recipe for Hippo-fun
Yes, though it may have been awhile
This Hippo STILL lives in DENIAL….
This report is very interesting to me. What could be the cause? Was there a zoo that a hippo could have escaped? Although it doesn’t seem realistic could a desmosylan have survived, isolated in the lake? Other Tertiary animals that probably looked like hippos lived in the USA such as Elomeryx, which was part of a family of animals that may have been the ancestors of hippos!
Sorry I spelled desmostylans wrong.