Topeka ? Officials at the Topeka Zoo say delays in getting a hippopotamus shipped to a zoo in San Francisco might mean the 5,500-pound animal will have to be shipped through Federal Express.

The 8-year-old male hippo was scheduled to begin its journey Nov. 30. But The Topeka Capital-Journal reports that the animal wasn’t ready to go at the time, and the private company that was going to ship the hippo is now booked.

Tucker the hippo recently became a father. It was born and raised in Disney’s Animal Kingdom and was scheduled to be transferred to the San Francisco Zoo last year, but the timing wasn’t right and he was sent to Topeka.

Topeka Zoo director Brendan Wiley says his zoo doesn’t have enough pool space to handle Tucker this winter.