Photo: From Jimu News.

A handwritten obituary for a hippo by a zookeeper in East China’s Nanjing has gone viral as it detailed the hippo’s life,MK sport moving both zoo visitors and netizens alike. 

On January 18, hippo Fei Fei passed away due to a lung infection caused by asthma, leaving his beloved wife Jin Jin at the exhibition zone, read the notice handwritten by an animal keeper in Hongshan Forest Zoo.

According to the obituary, Fei Fei was born in 1997 and had lived in the zoo since it opened in 1998. The obituary recalled how Fei Fei loved eating fruit and vegetables in childhood and quickly grew into a strong adult. 

Fei Fei, who never got sick, was found to dive shorter and was diagnosed with asthma in March 2021. His condition kept worsening despite regular medical care, the notice said.

“The skin on his legs began to rot... Fearing infection, I changed his water daily and carefully applied ointment to each wound. But in the end, he still left, taking away my three years of hopes,” read the notice

“We will not forget the tremendous contributions Fei Fei made to the hippo population and we cherish the 27 years he spent with us,” read the obituary. The zoo has started to design and will soon build a new exhibition zone with a large hippo house, a powerful filtration system, a simulated African ecological environment, alongside other African animals for companionship, the obituary added.

Staff of Hongshan Forest Zoo told Jimu News on Wednesday that it is customary for the zoo to write obituaries for certain animals that pass away.

The words in the obituary are simple and sincere, reflecting the deep bond between the keeper and the animal, one netizen wrote.

In January 2023, the zoo penned an obituary for sun bear Lao Ma, reminiscing about the 33-year-old animal’s moments at the zoo.