hippoPUBamus 9 info!

Update on our Hippos! Dizzy and Kuchek

As most attendees of the annual HippoPUBamus pub crawl know, the extra money we garner from hippoPUB crawl t-shirts is donated to the Turgwe Hippo Trust in Zimbabwe. A few times a year, Karen Paolillo, founder, sends us updates on the two hippos we sponsor, Dizzy and Kucheck. 

Below are their stories written by Karen, as well as recent photos.  We hope you enjoy reading about their status and are looking forward to the 9th annual hippoPUBamus coming sometime this fall!

DIZZY 

Dizzy, alongside her brother Kuchek, Robin, and the rest of the group have moved yet again to a new pool in the Turgwe River.  Last year they lived on the Mokore side of the Turgwe in a pool more or less opposite their normal one next to Hippo Haven.  This year, thanks to late rains falling in abundance over a very short period, the river came down in a huge flood.

This created two new pools about half a mile downstream from the Trust’s headquarters.  These pools are still in the Turgwe River and are at a place called the Chlabata pools.  They used to be decent pools before 2000 when the land invasions commenced within Zimbabwe.  

When the people took over certain areas within the Conservancy, the Chlabata pools were part of the invaded sections. The hippos were daily harassed by these illegal settlers.  We caught them throwing rocks at the hippos as well as using catapults, and when we tried to explain that this was not a very sensible way to behave they were just as aggressive towards us. Sensibly the hippos left the area altogether and have not been back there for eleven years. 

This year is the first time the pools are deep again and the people at present are not coming there as they have water inland so do not need to visit that specific area for their water requirements.  I just hope that when they return the hippos will once more come back to the pools closer to Hippo Haven where they are perfectly safe and we can protect them.  I will keep a vigil on them while they are at Chlabata, hoping to prevent any kind of aggression towards them if the people return there.  This is all part and parcel of what happened to this wildlife area when it was illegally invaded.  The poaching became a daily event and harassment of animals like the hippos a regular occurrence.  I obviously worry non stop about them at this spot, especially for the tiny baby Banky.  Yet Cheeky, Banky’s mother, knows the area well and at the first sign of people not being pleasant I am sure she and the others will return to our area.  Dizzy has never come across this kind of human behavior so I hope for her sake she will be spared anything in that line and they will just find lots of people in their area unsettling and return quickly to Hippo Haven.

As they are wild animals I cannot just make them come back to a secure place, but like any animal they are far from stupid and I believe will come home.  Dizzy’s mother, Mystery, moved with her calf to Chubby’s pool which is also utilized by these illegal settlers and she learnt to keep a very low profile, tucking herself and her baby up in the reeds. Nowadays she stays there for most of the daylight hours.  She likes it better there as I believe her new calf is a male.  So it is safer with just a young male like Chubby than here alongside his brother Kuchek, and Robin the bull.

Dizzy is such a friendly hippo with such a trusting character that I would hate for any human to be cruel to her. Maybe the water will actually become too shallow and they will move home before they have any problems with the settlers.  Dizzy is very independent; her closest friend is Kiboko, another female of the same age and often the two of them can be found lying together, resting their head on each other’s body.

She thanks you as her foster parent for caring about her life and supporting her. Without these hippo adoptions we would not be able to help the hippos as we do.  The adoptions pay for the regular daily outgoings that the Trust has to have in order to exist and fulfill our role as protectors of these amazing animals.

KUCHEK

Kuchek and the rest of the hippos in Robin’s family group have all moved to a new pool this year. It is actually in the main channel of the river in the area called the Chlabata pools. This is a place where the hippos used to live regularly up until 2001. At that time the land was illegally invaded by people who mainly came into this wildlife area to poach but under the umbrella of land resettlement. Although it was agreed by government that it was a mistake for the people to invade this wildlife Conservancy they are still here 12 years later.

This invasion meant that two of the hippos main areas suddenly had people utilizing the river for washing purposes as well as to water their domestic livestock, cattle and goats.  The people at that time were extremely aggressive towards us and the animals and so they chased the hippos away from the pools by throwing rocks at them and daily harassing them.

Now 12 years later the hippos this year moved back there. This was due mainly to an enormous amount of rain falling in a very short period of two weeks and allowing old pools to have the sand and silt washed out of them.  The hippos have always liked that area so they moved back.  Fortunately up until now the people have hardly come back to the river as they have had water inland but they are slowly beginning to filter back.  What this means is I am keeping a careful watch over the hippos hoping that this time they will be left in peace.  There is enough water in that channel for the people to use the bottom pool and leave the hippos nearer to our home alone.  If they do harass them then the hippos I am sure will return to Hippo Haven which is only half a kilometer upstream.

Kuchek is not old enough to remember all of the problems as he was born in March 2001 and the people actually invaded our area in October 2001.  He is very happily living still with Robin the bull.  The entire family now numbers 11 hippos as one female Relief has returned.  Relief has been gone for three years but it is not unusual for a Turgwe Hippo to move away and then return at a later stage.  In her case her mother is Cheeky and she seems to want to care for Banky, Cheeky’s new son, as she is constantly with him.

Much to my amazement Kuchek and Robin are behaving themselves in Banky’s presence as often bulls will threaten a new male calf.  Cheeky even initially took Banky to live upstream with Tembia the bull’s family and they too accepted him which is very unusual. 

Kuchek seems to like Banky as often they will be close to each other and I have never seen him or Robin threaten the calf, which is lovely.  Kuchek is now maturing and often Robin will leave him in the river pool while Robin goes away for a short period. Robin is getting on in years now and I think at times he likes to be on his own away from all the other hippos and so then Kuchek is the bull in charge. Although I have not seen him use his authority as he defers to Tacha and Cheeky the two females.  They like to dominate and originally it was Cheeky who appeared to be the dominant female but of late Tacha has taken over this role.  Kuchek just minds his own business and lets the females get on with it.

This year I will need to feed the hippos again as for the first time in over 21 years we have hardly any grass, and it is only May just at  the end of the rains.  The land where the hippos graze is covered with mainly weeds.  The hippos have managed to put weight on again and do not look too bad at all. Yet once we get into the hotter dry months which is around September that will not be the case.  So I am planning to feed them a diet of hay and a mixture of other things called survival ration, which contains cotton seed and other ingredients suitable for them, as well as horse cubes. 

This will be an extremely expensive undertaking.  The last time I did this was in the horrendous drought of 1992 and then I only fed 13 hippos and 58 other wild animals.  This time there are 21 hippos to feed and a lot more wild animals. I am hoping to be able to raise enough money to do this from August until the hopeful new rains in late November/December. I will need all the help I can get from the hippos adopted parents as well as any person who is keen to save these animals lives.

Please spread the word about this need and if you can come up with any fund raising ideas to help the Turgwe Hippos it would be so much appreciated.

In the meantime Kuchek thanks you as his foster parent for caring about his life.