These days anyone can choose their gender. Women can become men and vice versa by surgically altering their genitalia. Transgenders, however, may still retain behaviors that give a hint of their former sex.

When an African safari animal park in Mexico shipped one of its male hippopotamuses to the Osaka Tennoji Zoo in Japan in 2017, zookeepers got confused as to its gender.

For one, they did not see any male genitalia on Gen-chan, as the 12-year-old hippo was called. Also, the hippo did not make courtship calls on females of its kind or mark its territory with feces as males of their kind do.

It was only after Gen-chan was recently subjected to a DNA test that the zoo was able to confirm “he” was a female hippo.

Meanwhile, Hong Kong transgender activist Henry Tse, 33, took a long while to be recognized as male by the local government.

Tse had to hail the government to court in 2017 for refusing to register him as a male. Tse’s city identification card indicated his previous gender until February 2023, when Hong Kong’s Court of Final Appeal eventually ruled in his favor, CNN reports.

The card is essential for everything from filing tax returns and opening a bank account to booking a tennis court or a doctor’s appointment, according to CNN.

Authorities had to amend their policy to comply with the court ruling. When March came and the government had yet to issue his new identity card, Tse filed another lawsuit accusing the government of “unreasonable delay,” CNN said.

Last month, Tse finally received his Hong Kong ID card indicating his sex as male. He reproduced a large replica of it and waved it outside the immigration office to celebrate his legal victory.

WJG WITH AFP @tribunephl_wjg