The R44 POH shows that the skids are 83 inches apart. That means each skid is + or - 41.5 in off the longitudinal center line.
I created a new station in my R44 W&B application (Co-Pilot for iOS) for "Load on RH skid) with lateral arm of +41.5 in, and longitudinal arm of 79.5 in (same as rear pax).
With this configuration, I arrive at the lat CoG values as per my post above (changing with the estimated weight of the animal handing from the skid):
Lateral envelope is +/- 3 inches. Using the assumptions for fuel, pax and cargo weight (50 kg for the hippo baby) from John R81, the lateral CoG comes out exactly at 3.0 in. Any bigger, like 100 kg as estimated by Thracian, and the lat CoG would be way out (4.6 in). Putting the rear pax on the left side could have helped, but who knows maybe their ops procedures require the loadmaster to keep an eye on the external load