A voyage from Denver proved fatal for a hippopotamus that was being transferred to the Calgary Zoo.

Six-year-old Hazina was transported by truck on Thursday, but zoo officials said Monday that when the hippo arrived in Calgary, the young female couldn't stand and was in distress.

Hazina the hippo died after a road trip from Denver to Calgary that lasted more than 20 hours.
(Denver Zoo)

Doug Whiteside, the zoo's veterinarian, said Hazina had been lying in one position in the crate for too long, which damaged her leg muscles, leading to a release of toxins into the bloodstream. 

The hippo was being relocated from the Denver Zoo to join two hippos in Calgary for breeding and died early Saturday.

The company and the driver that moved Hazina were experienced in handling animals, officials from the Calgary Zoo said at a news conference Monday.

Lynn Kramer, vice-president of biological programs at the Denver Zoo, called the situation "very, very unusual."

"We're all scratching our heads [as to] what we'd do differently right now," Kramer said Monday. "The normal process is to stop every few hours and examine the animal, which was done."

This Hazina is not the same hippo, also named Hazina, that was featured in a popular Telus commercial. That hippo still lives at the Greater Vancouver Zoo in Aldergrove, B.C.

Two charges of animal cruelty against the B.C. zoo were dropped earlier in 2007 after a larger enclosure for the hippo was built to replace a small, concrete pen.

With files from the Canadian Press