Lucifer, the Homosassa Springs park’s hippo, has died at age 65
June 8, 2025 - Homosassa Springs Wildlife State Park announced Sunday that Lucifer, the African hippopotamus that had resided there since since the age of 4, has died. Born in 1960 at the San Diego Zoo, the animal was used in several of filmmaker Ivan Tors' film and TV series in the early '60s, and was donated to Homosassa - then one of the most popular tourist attractions on Florida's West Coast - in 1964. In 1989, when the state purchased the aging attraction and the focus was turned to the display of indigenous Florida wildlife, Lucifer - his name then shortened to Lu - was almost relocated out of state. Due to a public outcry, he was allowed to remain at the Homosassa, essentially the only home he'd even known. Then-governor Lawton Chiles made the hippo an honorary Florida citizen. The cause of death has not been made public.