But the relationship took a turn for the worse a few weeks ago, when Ducuing purchased a tractor for work around the zoo. “We noticed that every time Jean was on his tractor, Komir would get mad,” said Jean-Claude Marchais, a close friend. Feeling spurned, perhaps, the hippo jumped over his electric fence, and chewed his longtime friend to death. Says Marchais, “It was a love story with a bad ending.”
