Last Updated on September 20, 2026 by Jorge Bastos
No, there are no wild hippos in Australia. Hippos are native to sub-Saharan Africa, and Australia’s isolated evolution never gave large African mammals like hippos, elephants, or lions a natural path onto the continent — it’s the same reason Australia has kangaroos, koalas, and wombats found nowhere else, but nothing resembling a hippo ever showed up on its own.
You can, however, see real hippos in Australia at several major zoos — and as of late 2024, the country just ended a 40-year gap in hippo imports, with fresh individuals now arriving to strengthen local breeding programs.
Where to See Hippos in Australia
Werribee Open Range Zoo (Victoria)
The best all-round hippo experience in the country. Werribee, about 32 km (30–40 minutes) southwest of Melbourne, is an African-themed safari zoo built around a free 40-minute open-air bus tour included with admission.
Hippos live at the Kubu River Hippos exhibit, and Hippo Beach — a boardwalk viewing area right beside their pool — doubles as a splash park for kids in warmer months. For a closer look, Werribee also runs a paid Hippo Experience: a behind-the-scenes session where you help feed the hippos their dinner and a keeper teaches you to tell the animals apart. Plan for 2–4 hours to see the full zoo. Our hippopotamus habitat guide covers what wild hippo territory actually looks like, for comparison.
Taronga Western Plains Zoo, Dubbo (New South Wales)
Home to a resident hippo group and one of the more hands-on encounters available anywhere in the country: the Hippo Encounter, a behind-the-scenes experience where visitors feed a hippo lettuce directly under a keeper’s guidance (participants must be 10 or older, and spots are limited).
Dubbo also runs a Savannah Safari truck tour through the wider African animal area, and offers overnight lodge stays for a fuller multi-day visit.
Monarto Safari Park (South Australia)
The largest open-range zoo in Australia, and the largest safari experience outside Africa itself, spanning over 1,500 hectares. Monarto is home to Brindabella, born in 1990 and weighing around 1,584 kg, and her daughter Pansy, born in 2013 at roughly 1,180 kg — both relocated here from Werribee in December 2023.
A small-group early morning safari tour by open-sided vehicle gets you closest to them, departing before the park opens to the public.
Pygmy Hippos
The smaller, more endangered of the two living hippo species — covered in full in our pygmy hippo guide — can be seen at Taronga Zoo Sydney, Adelaide Zoo, Melbourne Zoo, and Darling Downs Zoo, according to ABC News.
The 40-Year Import Ban Just Ended
Australia went roughly 40 years without importing a new hippo, but that changed in late 2024. Zoos are now bringing in fresh individuals specifically to strengthen breeding genetics — Werribee’s own life sciences team noted they hadn’t successfully bred a hippo since 2013, when their breeding bull Harold died of old age. Expect new arrivals and, hopefully, new calves across these programs in the coming years.
Has Anyone Ever Tried to Introduce Wild Hippos to Australia?
Not as far as any documented record shows. Unlike the genuinely strange, well-documented episode in early 20th-century America — where hippos were seriously proposed as a meat-farming solution — there’s no equivalent case of anyone formally proposing to release hippos into the Australian wild.
Given Australia’s long and costly history with introduced species like rabbits, cane toads, and camels, it’s not an idea anyone in a position to act on it seems to have seriously floated.
Australia’s Other “Hippo”
Western Australia has its own hippo of sorts, minus the danger: Hippo’s Yawn, a granite rock formation near the famous Wave Rock outside the town of Hyden. Standing about 12.6 metres tall, it earned its name purely from its resemblance to a yawning hippopotamus, and makes a popular quick stop for anyone already visiting Wave Rock.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Are there wild hippos in Australia? No. Hippos are native only to sub-Saharan Africa and none live in the wild in Australia.
- Where can I see hippos in Australia? Werribee Open Range Zoo (Victoria), Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo (New South Wales), and Monarto Safari Park (South Australia) all have common hippos, with hands-on feeding and keeper experiences available at Werribee and Dubbo. Pygmy hippos can be seen at Taronga Zoo Sydney, Adelaide Zoo, Melbourne Zoo, and Darling Downs Zoo.
- Can you feed a hippo in Australia? Yes — both Werribee Open Range Zoo and Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo offer paid, behind-the-scenes experiences where visitors can help feed the hippos under keeper supervision.
- Has Australia recently imported new hippos? As of late 2024, Australia ended a roughly 40-year gap in hippo imports, and zoos are now working to bring in new individuals to strengthen breeding programs for both common and pygmy hippos.
- Did Australia ever try to introduce hippos into the wild? There’s no documented case of this. It’s sometimes confused with a real, separate historical episode in the United States, where hippos were seriously proposed as a farmed meat source in the early 20th century — but that plan was never Australian.
Explore more on Hippoworlds: hippopotamus habitat · pygmy hippo guide · hippopotamus conservation · baby hippo
I’ve been writing and running HippoWorlds’ content since 2019. I lived in Angola and was lucky enough to see hippos in the wild in Botswana and South Africa — I’m not a scientist, but a curious enthusiast dedicated to making this site a serious reference on the species.