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Belle the hippo during the siege of Leningrad, 1943.
Of all the horrors of war, a destitute hippo is one of the last sights you would expect to see. Belle the hippo survived the Siege of Leningrad thanks to her caretaker, Yevdokia Dashina.
In 1941, water was turned off throughout the city and Belle’s pool was empty, so her skin began to dry out. Every day, Dashina would drag a 40-liter barrel of water from the Neva River and rub the hippo with camphor oil. Eventually, Belle’s skin healed and she was able to hide underwater through the air raids.
“Belle survived the war thanks to her caretaker, Yevdokia Dashina. In 1941 water was turned off throughout the city and Belle’s pool was empty, so her skin began to dry out and crack. Every day, Dashina would drag a 40-liter barrel of water from the Neva river and rub the suffering hippo with camphor oil. Eventually, Belle’s skin healed and she was able to hide underwater through the air raids.” (Source)
*In this case, none of the zoo animals were eaten, but some, like Betty the elephant, died during the air strikes (sad picture warning!) Most of the cats and rats were indeed eaten, unfortunately.
*An adult hippo night should receive from 36 to 40 kg of feed. But during the blockade she ate 4-6 kg of a mixture of herbs, vegetables and press cake, adding there 30 kg filings, just to fill her stomach. (The zoo workers also shared their rations with the animals.) If you see this picture of Belle from 1935 you can tell that she lost a lot of weight. So she probably didn’t have “enough to eat”, but enough not to starve to death.
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