chonburi thailand as children and other spectators sang to mark her 55th birthday thailands oldest hippopotamus mae mali chomped on an assortment of fruit and vegetables arranged in the shape of a cakemae mali which means mother jasmine in thai who moved to a compound at khao kheow open zoo in eastern thailand two years ago from a zoo in bangkok and has already outlived a hippos typical life expectancy of around 40 to 50 years oldmae mali is now a grandma we have been taking great care of her regarding her health food and environment said zoo director attaporn srihayrunmae mali gave birth to numerous calves and her descendants now number 21 hippos residing in zoos across the southeast asian countrymae mali cannot reproduce anymore because shes quite elderly but we will still take great care of her so that she can become one of the longest living hippopotamus in the world said attapornin the wild the hippopotamus lives in rivers and lakes in subsaharan africa and habitat loss means its now considered vulnerablein the neighbouring philippines bertha considered to be the oldest hippopotamus in captivity at the time died in 2017 aged 65another hippopotamus lucifer or lu is reported to have celebrated his 60th birthday at a wildlife park in the us state of florida in january this yearwith adults weighing from 1500 kilograms 3304 lbs up to 3200 kilograms the hippo is the secondheaviest land animal after the elephant spending the heat of the day in the water and coming ashore at night to feed on grasses and fruitthe world wildlife fund estimates there are around 115000 to 130000 left in the wild