Bronx Zoo Birthday

Meet Pete. (He’s the one with the big mouth and the two intimidating molars.) In July 1947, when Times staff photographer Arthur Brower took this picture, Pete was celebrating his birthday with his Bronx Zoo keeper.

The 44-year-old hippo was, at the time, the zoo’s oldest tenant. But even on his birthday, Pete preferred a mouthful of hay and three heads of cabbage to a cake and candles. And while zoo officials were hoping he’d display his diving and swimming prowess during his birthday celebration, Pete simply “put his massive foot down, granted newspaper men a brief audience and returned to stolid contemplation,” The Times reported. “Pete is just getting along in years. He doesn’t want to be bothered,” said his keeper. Six years later, in 1953, Pete died “a congenital and satisfied bachelor.” In the spirit of a wake, Bronx Zoo keepers told stories about “the happy hippopotamus,” who for nearly half a century amused young and old by posing like this, with his huge mouth agape.