Posted on 12/16/2022 12:59:09 PM PST by nickcarraway
He was only two days old when he was abandoned by his herd. Charlie the baby hippo was premature, weak, stressed and traumatised when he was rescued by workers from Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife in KwaZulu-Natal.
But what a difference a few years and some TLC can make – Charlie (6) is healthy as a horse and will soon be released into the wild.
But boy, did he have plenty obstacles standing in his way.
For the first few years of his life, Charlie believed he was a rhinoceros because he was raised with rhinos in a rhino orphanage. But to stand any chance of surviving he had to learn how to be the hippo that he is.
After he was found abandoned, he was taken to Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage for intensive care, but his new home specialised in caring for rhinos and he was the only hippo there.
Charlie was introduced to another orphan, a white rhino named Makhosi, and the unlikely duo quickly became fast friends, playing, cuddling and snuggling at bedtime.
“When I first met him, he definitely had some character to him,” says Simon Jones, founder and CEO of Helping Rhinos, an international non-profit organisation that works to save rhinos from extinction.
“As he got older, he really started to think that he was rhino. There were more rhinos who he spent time with and Charlie was trying to keep up with them,” he says.
Simon recalls a time when Charlie was still small. “He was trying to eat hay out of an old tyre and Makhosi came up to him and almost, like, told him off a little because she wanted to eat it.
“When people told me that he could sulk, I thought they were being silly, but he really did sulk that day. The carers tried to console him, but he turned his back on them, really like a spoiled child, sulking,” he laughs.
In 2017 Charlie and his rhino family were moved to a new home when Thula Thula Rhino Orphanage closed its doors after it was attacked by poachers who brutally killed two rhinos for their horns.
The animals were relocated to Zululand Rhino Orphanage for their safety and the bond between Charlie and Makhosi only grew stronger and stronger. But their friendship had unintended negative consequences – Charlie didn't spend time in water as he needed to. But hippos need to spend time in water to prevent dehydration and sunburn, which he was experiencing, so his caretakers had to hose him throughout the day.
Because he'd spent the first two years of his life with rhinos, Charlie needed to interact with other hippos to get ready for release in the wild and workers at the orphanage found a female hippo at a private reserve who would be a good match for him.
“He had to learn how to be a hippo because the ultimate aim for all of our orphans is to try and return them into the wild when they are big and strong enough to do so,” Simon says.
His caretakers drove 1 000km to fetch a female hippo named Moomin. Moomin was brought into a smaller area in Charlie’s pen and it took some time for him to get used to her.
A few days after her arrival, she was submerged in a small dam when Charlie was able to meet her face to face without a barrier. His curiosity got the better of him and he finally got into the water with her.
The pair were later moved from the pen and started spending time in a bigger dam.
As time went by, his caretakers kept him away from the rhinos, who Charlie still spent time with, because they knew it was important for the two species to live and grow separately.
In 2020 Makhosi was released into the wild, but long before her release caretakers kept her and Charlie apart in preparation for her leaving the sanctuary.
Charlie still lives at the orphanage with Moomin, but he no longer interacts with the rhinos.
Simon, who lives in the UK, visited the pair in February this year to check on their development.
“He's a very different Charlie from the last time I saw him when he was a baby. He seemed to have enjoyed having humans in the area, but if we came too close, he definitely let us know who's boss,” he says.
"He has a lot of hippo behavioural traits and he's very protective over Moomin, which is good," Simon says.
The orphanage is currently preparing to release Charlie and Moomin into the wild.
“He definitely knows that he's a hippo now.”
We have that same problem.....................
Grandpa Rhino demands an answer:
“Where your Horns, Boy? I thought you was one of the Girls!”
I once read, somewhere, that in Africa hippo’s kill more people each year than any other animal.
They were described as big as a truck, fast as a sports car, nearly as agile as a cheetah and possessing the personality of a whizzed off rottweiler. And that was on land. In the water they turned into a submarine with a worse personality on a seek and destroy mission.
There’s reasons they’re photographed from a distance.
I once saw a wildlife show where a young hippo bonded with a giant tortoise.
Yet, in Columbia hippos don’t kill people.
“Yet, in Columbia hippos don’t kill people.”
Hippos aren’t native to Columbia.
The 70 or so hippos currently outside of zoos in Columbia are there thanks to one Pablo Escobar’s obsession with showing off his wealth. In his heyday he imported four of them and built a nice paddock for them, complete with a lake.
Since Pablo assumed room temperature in 1993 his hippos escaped into the wild and now comprise a herd of 70. The Columbian government has declared them an invasive species and intends to terminate the herd.
Yes, I know about the hippos there. Still, it’s amazing it hasn’t resulted in attacks.
They’re starting to be a problem. Last year a man was attacked but was able to get away. I was wrong on the number, as of 2022 there were 130 known hippos. Experts say the number could be 400 in seven years if nothing is done.
The people of the nearest town don’t want the animals killed because they’re “not a problem.”
Just wait until there’s hundreds of them.
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