It sounds like a nightmare or a poorly written horror script. But for the people of Tbilisi, Georgia, in June 2015, the reality was much weirder and more tragic than fiction. You’ve probably seen the iconic photo—a massive, confused hippopotamus named Begi wandering through a mud-slicked city square, surrounded by men in fatigues with tranquilizer guns. It’s an image that went global instantly. However, behind that surreal scene lay a much darker, grimmer story that many people still get mixed up. Specifically, the harrowing reports that some hippos were boiled in their tanks during the peak of the disaster.
Honestly, it’s a phrase that sticks in your throat.
The 2015 Tbilisi flood wasn't just a "bad storm." It was a geological middle finger. The Vere River, usually a modest stream, turned into a thundering wall of debris, mud, and carcasses. When the water hit the Tbilisi Zoo, it didn't just flood the cages; it destroyed the infrastructure. This is where the "boiled" part comes in, and it’s not just a sensationalist headline. It’s a technical tragedy.
The Night the Vere River Rose
It happened past midnight on June 14. Heavy rain triggered a massive landslide on the Tskneti-Betania road, which basically dammed the river. When that "dam" broke, a mountain of mud and trees slammed into the city. The zoo sat right in the valley. It was the worst possible place to be.
Imagine being an animal trapped in a submerged enclosure. The water rose so fast that zookeepers couldn't even reach the keys.
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But why do people say the hippos were boiled in their tanks? It comes down to the thermal systems. Zoos in temperate climates like Georgia use complex heating pipes to keep tropical water at specific temperatures. When the flood hit, it didn't just bring water; it brought massive physical trauma to the zoo's underground utility lines. High-pressure steam pipes and boiling water conduits for the African enclosures ruptured. In some specific sections of the hippopotamus and tropical exhibits, the floodwater mixed with escaping, super-heated steam from the damaged heating plant.
It wasn't a slow simmer. It was a catastrophic technical failure.
While Begi the hippo became the face of survival, others weren't so lucky. The reports from the ground were chaotic. Mzia Sharashidze, the zoo’s spokesperson at the time, had to break the news that over half of the zoo’s 600 inhabitants were gone. Some drowned. Some were shot by special forces because they were roaming the streets and posed a threat to residents. But the most gruesome deaths happened inside the enclosures where the infrastructure failed.
Natural Disaster Meets Engineering Failure
The tragedy of the hippos were boiled in their tanks highlights something we rarely think about: the vulnerability of life-support systems. Most modern zoo enclosures are life-support machines.
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Take a hippo tank. It’s not just a big bathtub. It requires constant filtration and, crucially, climate control. When the mudflow smashed the utility tunnels under the Tbilisi Zoo, it wasn't just "wet." It was a chaotic mix of cold river water and scalding industrial steam. Survivors among the staff described the scene as hellish—the smell of sulfur, the screaming of animals, and the sight of steam rising from the murky floodwaters.
You've got to realize how tight the margins are in these facilities.
A hippopotamus can weigh 3,000 pounds. You can't just pick one up and move it when a pipe bursts. If you're an animal in a tank and the water suddenly hits 200 degrees because a main line snapped, there is nowhere to go. It’s a closed loop turned into a death trap.
Beyond the Headlines: The Shot and the Saved
While the "boiled" narrative is what sticks in the brain because of the sheer visceral horror of it, the rest of the night was equally insane.
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- Begi the Survivor: He survived the initial surge and floated out of his enclosure. He was eventually cornered in Vera Square and moved back to a dry enclosure.
- The Lions and Tigers: This was the stuff of actual nightmares. Wolves, lions, and tigers escaped into the residential streets. One tiger hid in a warehouse and tragically killed a man before being shot by police.
- The Penguins: Believe it or not, some penguins washed up miles downstream near the Azerbaijani border.
Critics of the zoo's location had been screaming for years that the valley was a flood risk. They were right. The Georgian government faced massive backlash because the zoo was essentially a sitting duck. The infrastructure was aging, and the proximity to the Vere River meant that any significant landslide upstream would turn the zoo into a drain.
Why We Still Talk About This
We talk about it because it’s a reminder of our hubris. We build these "natural" habitats in the middle of concrete jungles, but they are entirely dependent on a thin web of pipes and wires. When those pipes break, the very things meant to keep the animals alive—like the heating systems—become the instruments of their death.
The phrase hippos were boiled in their tanks serves as a grim shorthand for the total systemic collapse that occurred that night. It wasn't just "nature" being cruel; it was a failure of urban planning and emergency preparedness.
Today, the Tbilisi Zoo has largely recovered, and there have been long-standing plans to move the entire facility to a safer location near the "Tbilisi Sea" reservoir. But the memory of that night remains a scar on the city's history. It’s a story about the fragility of the barriers we build between ourselves and the wild, and how quickly those barriers can turn into cages in the worst sense of the word.
Actionable Insights for Disaster Awareness
The Tbilisi tragedy offers more than just a sad story; it provides crucial lessons for animal welfare and urban safety.
- Demand Infrastructure Audits: If you live near a zoo or animal sanctuary, look into their flood-mitigation plans. High-risk areas should have automated shut-off valves for steam and gas lines to prevent the "boiling" scenarios seen in Georgia.
- Support Relocation Projects: Many older zoos are located in "bottom-land" or floodplains because the land was cheap decades ago. Support initiatives that seek to move these facilities to higher, safer ground, even if it means a longer drive to visit.
- Emergency Protocols: The 2015 event showed that "tranquilize first" isn't always possible in a flash flood. Zoos need better-funded rapid-response teams that have the equipment to move large animals under duress without resorting to lethal force.
- Volunteer and Donate: Organizations like the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums (WAZA) work on safety standards. Donating to disaster relief funds specifically for zoological parks ensures that when the next Vere River rises, the keepers have the tools to get the cages open in time.
The reality of the Tbilisi flood is a heavy burden, but understanding exactly what happened—beyond the viral photos—is the only way to make sure it doesn't happen again. The animals deserve better than a death by infrastructure.