WASHINGTON – Happy the hippo could soon be a lot happier.
The National Zoo’s solitary male Nile hippopotamus is heading to the Milwaukee County Zoo, where his new home will include a pool, a sandy beach and two potential girlfriends, Puddles and Patty.
Zoo officials say they’re sad to see Happy go, but that Milwaukee will offer him a great life.
Happy is 28 and weighs about 5,500 pounds. He has to leave the National Zoo because his home is being eliminated for the expansion of the zoo’s elephant exhibit.
The Milwaukee zoo, meanwhile, is beginning a roughly $10 million expansion of its hippopotamus exhibit, part of which will allow visitors to watch hippos swimming underwater.
Happy is expected to move to Milwaukee this summer.