I heard a fact about an incident a Berlin Zoo (although may be another
zoo) in which one or possibly two hippopotamuses were killed by
boiling water. It is alleged that the tap that released the boiling
water into their enclosure was turned on by an elephant. I am very
keen to find out whether this is true or not, and if there is any
solid evidence for it having happened.

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Clarification of Question by quizquizquiz-ga on 19 Nov 2004 03:08 PST

Thanks for your comments! 
One of my colleagues has suggested that the fact is actually "hot
water" rather than "boiling water".

1) therefore does not apply
2) not entirely convinced of this one anyway
3) the are not in the same enclousre - but in a similar area of the
zoo with shared water systems
4) and 5) fair enough i guess.

There are a quite few reasons that this isnt true.  1)Tap water will
never boil right out of the tap, also consider that you need a lot of
water to boil a 3 ton hippo, and more than likely the water heaters
would run out of water before you could get enought water to do the
job. 2)Hippos have an average body tempeature of 96 degress farenheit.
3)Hippos and elephants are very territorial and aggressive.  For an
elephant to off a hippo in this manner, they'd have to be in the same
cage or enclosure which would be extraordinarily...  bad.  4)Ther's no
way on earth that a zookeeper is not going to know about the hippo
boiling to death because hippos tend to secrete a thin, red liquid
when they get really hot.  A pool of liquid that looked like blood
would inevitably freak someone out.  And last but not least, 5)  If
the water gets hot, the hippo will get out of the water.

In short: no.