The following is my translation of an article called: Das Zwergflußpferd, eine zoologische Neuheit von Major Hans Schomburgk. It appeared in a German popular science magazine, Kosmos Handweiser für Naturfreunde 1913, Heft 2, Seiten 62-65. The original article is accompanied by several photos. As this translation isn't, you might like to find some for yourself. I'm not aware of any previous translation.
Trevor Dykes.

The Pygmy hippopotamus, a zoological novelty by Major Hans Schomburgk
As astronomers jubilantly greet the discovery of a new star, the reception was similar from the zoological world when, in the year of 1889, Sir Harry Johnston discovered the wonderful okapi. When Major Powell Cotton and the German researcher, Dr Berger, brought the almost forgotten White rhinoceros (Rhinoceros simus) back into memory, the discovery stood in the line as a central point of general interest. Today, Kosmos readers get to meet a small pachyderm.

In the year of 1844, the American Dr Samuel G Morton classified the skull of an animal unknown to science, and gave it the name of Choeropsis liberiensis. This was a new discovery for the world. If one refers to the history of Liberia, however, one finds in the book of the Dutch Dr, O Dapper, which appeared in 1686 and concerned the research into the West coast of Africa, in the description of the animal world of Liberia -then known as the Pepper Coast- mentions of three kinds of pig. Of these descriptions, the Bush pig (Potamochoerus penicillatus) and the warthog (Phacochoerus aethiopicus) are immediately recognisable. He explains further of a giant black pig which was greatly feared by the natives, and whose teeth were so sharp that they could bite through anything. While it is certain that the Brush pig and warthog occur in Liberia, as perhaps also does the Forest hog (Hylochoerus meinertzhageni) -the Englishman, M Pye Smith, claims to have heard of this third from natives- none of these pigs are dangerous to people, or have the kind of teeth described by Dapper. In my opinion, this can only refer to the Pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis). The Golah described the Pygmy hippopotamus always in the following terms: "Him be big past pig, but him be pig and love water, but him be saucy too much, we all fear for true true. Him teeth be like knife, he fit to bite man in two one time." (Additional note: Those are Schomburgk's words, and I'm not inclined to translate his German translation!) Such a description from the year 1686, when one did not know of the existence of the Pygmy hippopotamus, would only have brought the assumption that it concerned a giant pig. Therefore, the discovery of the Pygmy hippopotamus can really be traced back to 1686, -although not on a scientific basis.

The service of making this rare animal known to science fell to the German researcher, Schweizer, and later the well known Liberia researcher, Büttikofer, who was able to obtain a few specimens killed by the natives, and send them to European museums even if he never saw the animal alive himself. Nevertheless, one still was not able to get a fully realistic impression of the animal. The stuffed specimens in the European museums deviated much from the actual shape of the animal, as there was no living specimen available as a model.

After Büttikofer, the animal sank ever deeper out of memory, and it was even assumed, as with may other representatives of the African fauna, to have gone extinct.

Thanks to a young employee of the company C Woermann in Liberia, it became known in Hamburg in 1911 that there really still are Pygmy hippopotamuses in Liberia.

Carl Hagenbeck, the old master of animal importation, did not let the opportunity go by, when it came to attempting to be the first to import a rare animal.

For various reasons, I had then just been forced to abandon a planned expedition to the west coast of Africa and, therefore, took on -albeit with much reluctance- the leadership of the expedition in search of this "unknown animal". Then I was only too well aware of the enormous difficulties I would have to overcome, and that I faced a challenge which researchers from various lands had termed unachievable.

I have already said enough about the capture and transportation of the Pygmy hippopotamus to a number of newspapers, so I will concentrate here on the way of life and the typical characteristics of the animal. When I arrived in Liberia, I heard from both Europeans and Liberians that it was very doubtful, as to whether the Pygmy hippopotamus really existed.

On the other hand, I also heard that hippopotamuses are fairly common in the Rivers Junk, St Paul's and Mano but, from the descriptions of these animals, I was left in no doubt that all these were concerned with the Common hippopotamus. Had not all travellers maintained that the Common hippopotamus did not occur in Liberia, then I would not have dared start out on an expedition to the interior.

I received the first report of a Pygmy hippopotamus from an American Mulatto, Mr Lett, in Sheffelienville, who had accompanied the Büttikofer expedition as a hunter and preparator. He gave me the assurance that Pygmy hippopotamuses, while very rare, could be found in the River Duquea. The natives there gave it the name 'Nigbwe', and sometimes shot it in times of the dry season.

He also provided me with a very impressive description of a giant animal, which had come up onto the land from the sea near to Shieffelienville about 15 years earlier.

The natives name this large animal 'Nnama' while educated Liberians have given it no name whatsoever, and sometimes it even gets called rhinoceros.

I made my first acquaintance with the Pygmy hippopotamus on the River Duquea and, on the route back from there to Monrovia, I checked on one of the mysterious animals which Mr Lett had described to me. Naturally, it was -as I had expected- a Common hippopotamus.

During my second Liberian journey, which took me into the completely unknown area of Golahland, I had plenty of opportunities to observe the lifestyle of the Pygmy hippopotamus.

In the English newspaper 'Field' (CXX, Nr. 3109, 7th/7th 1912) there was a report in which it was stated, that the Pygmy hippopotamus and its larger cousin could never live side by side. This is in no way compatible with my observations. Certainly, the animals do not live closely together, but I am completely convinced that they coexist peacefully with one another in the areas where I could observe. A number of Europeans have also explained to me that they have made similar observations on the River Mano. Furthermore, the report in 'Field' also says the Pygmy hippopotamus spends as much time in the water as its larger cousin, but that also is not in line with my experiences.

When I was hunting in Taquema, on the River Losa, I twice found, early in the mornings, a Pygmy hippopotamus in the water. In one instance, the animal was swimming very near to the bank, and apparently had the intention of leaving the water for the bush. I came down the river in my canoe. A Common hippopotamus would have undoubtedly dived for safety; the Pygmy hippopotamus, in contrast, immediately climbed up onto the bank and disappeared into the bush. One could, in this case, say that it had only carried on with its original intentions. On the second occasion, the Pygmy hippopotamus swam through the river -it had just been grazing in a native garden on the other bank. As soon as it noticed the canoe it disappeared below water. I assumed that it would remain in the river, and brought the canoe to rest at the spot where the animal had vanished, but it immediately swam in this instance towards the bank, and sought cover in the bush. Under the same circumstances, a large hippopotamus would never have done that.

I have made the observation that the hippopotamus, either alone or also in pairs, will roam through the forest. During the dry season, it will retreat into long caves during the daytime, which are washed out below the banks of the rivers, and provide comfortable and cool places to rest. I have found such tunnels extending quite far from the river course. The only hippopotamus that I shot was in such a tunnel. All the ones I saw had an entrance leading down to the water, and an exit emerging at the height of the bank. According to my experiences, I am fairly sure that the Pygmy hipppopotomus only goes into the water during the rainy season, should it have to cross a river or stream. It spends the day sleeping in a dark hidey-hole in the thick forest, generally on small hills far from the water. The native hunters of various tribes, whom I asked about the natural habits of Pygmy hippopotamuses, all reported to me that Pygmy hippopotamuses are common in the thickest bush, and are covered with white foam during deep sleep. Should one find the animal in this condition, one can near it without having to fear it will awaken. One can beat the surrounding bushes and even sit on the animal, and it will not notice anything. I have no grounds for doubting the truth of these reports as, without having asked for this specific information, it was explained to me in a similar fashion by people from different tribes, who had no connections with one another.

While the large hippopotamus is mainly dependant upon grass and herbs for its food, the Pygmy hippopotamus, as it lives in the jungle where almost no grasses grow, depends upon digging for tubers and roots. If one looks at the dentition of the Pygmy hippopotamus, then one finds that the incisors are irregularly worn, and one can clearly see that this is due to contact with a hard substance, and that can naturally only be sand and earth. The Pygmy hippopotamus also does not ignore the tender shoots of young rice plants, but its favourite foodstuff is cassava (Manihot utilssima, Pohl) from the plantations of the natives.

The young are born at the beginning of the dry season in November or December. They are sometimes caught by the native women while fishing. The young remain with the mother until their third year. As with the young of elephants, rhinoceroses and Common hippopotamuses, young Pygmy hippopotamuses constantly walk by their mother. As with all pachyderms, only a single youngster is born.

When I caught the young cow, Sauch, she originally screamed piteously through the night for her mother. It sounded something like the shouts of joy chimpanzees make to greet their keepers, and at other times like the bleating of calves.

The natives are very afraid of Pygmy hippopotamuses. The kind of the Golah, Tawe Dadwe, told me native hunters are often badly injured by Mwe (Golah for Pygmy hippopotamus), and sometimes even killed.

I hold the Pygmy hippopotamus as being intellectually much more developed than its larger cousin. After I had captured the first animal, a large bull from near the island of Tindoa, I immediately began taming him. In the first days, he treated me like a lion would with loud roaring. I hit him from the left with a hand held stick, and with a long strand of my whip from the right. After he had received two or three good thrashings, he became sensible and, after only eight days, he obeyed my voice. After about another week, I could go into the corral, sit on a chair and feed the animal by hand.

I believe that my Pygmy hippopotamuses -with the exception of Indian elephants - present the first instance of adult, wild pachyderms that have been completely tamed.

I had to have animal corrals in Macca emptied and cleaned by the boys using the primitive washing facilities. To achieve this objective, 20 to 30 people built a chain, and buckets of water were passed along it from hand to hand. The people could quietly stand with the animals without them making an attempt to attack. As I had been able to tame an adult Mwe, I won a reputation among the natives of being a powerful wizard.

The Pygmy hippopotamus is not only spread over the coastal area of Liberia, as it also occurs in French Sudan, at least in the areas that are rich in forests. While it is known everywhere, it does not seem to be common anywhere. Whether and in which districts it may be found in bordering Sierra Leone and the French Ivory Coast, is something that escapes my judgement. I believe the Cape Mount provides the closest habitat to the coast. Liberians and natives have given me assurances that it sometimes even enters the plantations at Robertsport, which is directly by Cape Mount.

It was my intention during the first journey to capture the animal with nets. However, I soon had to give this plan up. Firstly, because the animal is only rarely found in water, and secondly because the River Duquea contains too much dead wood and too many rocks. On my second journey I depended entirely on pits, and these had to be made with great care. The animals are such good climbers that they can escape from a 7 foot deep hole. My new system was as follows: I ordered a 7 foot deep, 2.5 foot wide and 5 foot long pit to be dug, and then slanting steps of about a foot wide to both sides of the pit floor. These steps prevented the animal, when standing on the ground, from reaching the rim of the hole and, as soon as it attempted to climb the step, then it would without fail slide off. An animal never escaped me from such a pit.

The Liberian Pygmy hippopotamus does not maintain a particular sleeping place. It moves through the forest like an elephant, and will only very rarely use the same place twice. Sometimes, it took me a whole day to find a suitable site for a pit.

Capturing a large hippopotamus in East Africa is comparatively easy. The animals there lie in ponds in otherwise dried out rivers, and clear traces show the places where these animals leave the water to graze during the night.

While the difficulties of capturing large hippopotamuses really begin after one is caught, the most difficult stage with the Pygmy hippopotamus has already been achieved by the capture. Transporting a large hippo is unbelievably difficult. The animal is so stupid and bad tempered, that it will run straight into any obstacle. It will even rock wildly in the transporter on the way to Europe, run against iron bars, and will often shove the whole cage several metres during a night. In contrast, the Pygmy hippopotamus is a sensible, affectionate, small animal. The only attempt it will make to escape is to try and climb up the walls of the corral. Its ways are rather like those of a tapir. Sometimes, a large hippopotamus will refuse food for days. Even the largest bulls I caught in Liberia already accepted food while still in the capture pit, in which they could hardly move. I placed pieces of cassava onto a long stick and reached it down to the animals in the pit, and they swallowed the treats greedily.

When I took the first captured animal from the River Losa to Macca -a 5 day long journey- I had unfortunately made the transport basket a bit too small, so that the poor animal could not stand up in it. Nevertheless, it did not lose its appetite. I feared the animal would not survive the difficult journey under those circumstances. But, when we arrived in Macca and let it out of the basket, it shook itself a couple of times and trotted off happily. I have strong doubts that a large hippopotamus would have survived such a journey at all.

The Pygmy hippopotamus was just as unaffected by our home voyage as by the difficult transport through the bush, despite the very heavy seas we experienced in the Bay of Biscay. And the animals seem to take excellently to captivity as, to my great joy, I can find out for myself with each visit to both the specimens still found in Stellingen.

Additional Notes - Dr Johann Büttikofer (1850-1927)
Thanks are due to CJ Hazevoet for spotting the spilling mysteaks. Old German typesacef can be devilish with 's', 'f' and various other letters. Typically, 'x' even manages to look much like 'y'.
He also supplied a bit of background on Büttikofer (1850-1927), the 'well known Liberia researcher' referred to above. Büttikofer hailed from the Valley of Cheese in Switzerland. To be more precise, his mummy gave birth in Ranflüh, Emmenthal. Some years later, he toddled off to Berne and studied biology. His route took him to Leiden in the Netherlands and, from 1884 until 1897, he was the curator of the Rijksmuseum of Natural History in that city, the staff of which he'd joined in 1879. He took part in two expeditions to Liberia, 1879-1882 and 1886-1887. Ever mobile, he then nipped off to central Borneo (1893-1894) in the company of Nieuwenhuis.
With his appetite sharpened for exotic places, Büttikofer next headed for the tropical paradise of, er, Rotterdam. He was the Director of the Zoological Garden from 1897-1924. He then retired, headed back to Berne, and that's where he retired permanently.
Given his collecting activities in Liberia, it's none too surprising that he was granted his own personal Fruit bat, Epomops buettikoferi, (Matschie, 1899). Those brackets probably indicate the species began its carrer allocated to a different genus. Should you be intending to attempt to chat one of these critters up, then you might like to be bold and address it by its informal name of Buettikofer's Clamorous Fruit bat. Or, should you prefer, you could substitue Epauletted for Clamorous or simply call it the West African Fruit bat. It probably wouldn't mind.

An index of more of my translations of old Kosmos articles can be found at:

Kosmos Translations Archive

A number of Mesozoic (and post-Mesozoic) location summaries can be found at Localities.