HOMOSASSA - The Florida Department of Environmental Protection’s Ellie Schiller Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park will celebrate Lu, the hippopotamus’, 50th birthday with a special event at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, Jan. 26.

The Wildlife Care Department will present Lu with his own birthday cake, and children from the Homosassa Elementary School will be attending the party to help Lu celebrate his birthday.

Park visitors, staff and school children will join in singing Happy Birthday, and park volunteers will provide cupcakes for the children. Lu’s 50th birthday party is a Florida Park Service 75th Anniversary signature event.

Vicki Iozzia, a volunteer at the wildlife park and at the elementary school, will teach an original song to the children in the Homosassa Elementary School Chorus to perform at Lu’s birthday party. Lu will also be receiving a new tractor tire to be donated by Al Ingram of Homosassa Tire. He loves to sleep on, and play with, these huge tires in his lagoon. Regular park admission will apply.

Lu, an African Hippopotamus, was born on Jan. 26, 1960, at the San Diego Zoo. He weighed just 90 pounds at birth, and now weighs about 6,000 pounds. He is a vegetarian, and consumes 15 pounds of alfalfa hay, four scoops of herbivore diet and a 5-gallon bucket of vegetables and fruit daily. He was a star of movies and television as part of Ivan Tors Animal Actors. Some of his credits include the movies Daktari and Cowboy in Africa, and television specials such as the Jack Linkletter Show and Herb Alpert Special. He also starred in a Union Carbide commercial, during which he tested the strength and durability of this product by tossing a tire around.

His best friend used to be a donkey named Susie, also a member of the Ivan Tors Animal Actors, and when the attraction needed to move the hippopotamus, they would bring the donkey out, and he would follow Susie anywhere. The Ivan Tors Animal Actors used the Homosassa attraction as a winter home for its animals in the late 1960s.

When the Florida Park Service purchased the attraction, the state planned to find homes for the exotic species, including Lu, the hippopotamus. A number of residents, however, didn’t want to see Lu moved. The local newspaper sent the letters from a letter-writing campaign to then-Gov. Lawton Chiles. As a result, Chiles declared Lu an Honorary Citizen of the State of Florida, and said he was entitled to spend the rest of his days at the park.

Throughout 2010, DEP’s Florida State Parks will celebrate 75 years of recreation and preservation. Florida State Parks will host special activities and interpretive events from coast to coast, including 25 signature events which highlight individual parks’ histories, as well as the history of the state park system as a whole. Florida’s 160 state parks offer white sandy beaches, vast open prairies, steep ravines, lush semi-tropical forests, cultural sites and crystal clear lakes, rivers and springs. State parks also offer countless locations to learn about Florida’s cultural history and serve as outdoor classrooms for students of all ages. Affordable, family friendly activities, such as swimming, hiking, bicycling, paddling, diving, fishing, camping, horseback riding, birding, photography, events and ranger-led tours are just a few ways people enjoy our natural resources.

To learn more about 75th Anniversary events, contests and Lu the hippopotamus, visit www.FloridaStateParks.org, and follow us on Twitter at www.Twitter.com/FLStateParks.