A year has passed since Karen Paolillo last wrote to Care for the Wild regarding the lives of the Turgwe River hippos. Their home in the south-east lowveld of Zimbabwe, had almost dried up during the drought two years ago, and without adequate water to drink and bathe in, the hippos faced certain death. With your help, Care for the Wild was able to supply these hippos with vital, clean water and a pan until the rains arrived.

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By Karen Paolillo

During 1993 every mature female hippo gave birth to a calf, a total of four new calves below our home. "Tembia" was the first to be born on June 16th, followed by "Flame" in the third week of August. "Three" on November 3rd and last but not least "Surprise" on November 12th. All calves at time of writing, January 1994, are growing beautifully, each of them having their own individual character. 

Their mothers appeared to make a kind of determined effort to fall pregnant by sharing their attentions between the two dominant bulls, "Bob" and "Happy." Alternately spending a week or so with the one bull Happy upstream, then moving down to Bob further along in the Turgwe. Only Tembia's mother "Lace," remained constantly at Bob's side, the other three females moving around.

I had my heart stopping moments as I watched each calf in its first weeks of life, which are often perilous. Crocodiles daily circled mother and calf, but she would be forever swiveling around in the water, aware of their cunning approach, bobbing her head constantly under the surface to make sure no crocodile was in too close proximity to her offspring. Both dominant bulls also kept up a close vigil. I noted that other members of the hippo family are not allowed into close contact with any new calf. The first to have contact with a calf is usually a juvenile, once the calf is about six weeks old. Other females are kept at a distance by the calf's mother who utters a kind of purr/roar call, sometimes opening her mouth in threat display.

At birth the calf is incredibly small looking, compared to the bulk of its own mother. I would say in size resembling a young Labrador dog, and weighing approximately 40 lbs. Against its father's two and a half ton weight one can imagine how tiny these new little hippos appear. 

At first the calf has difficulties acting like a hippo, not being able to hold its own body buoyant in the water, so instead it rests its head or any part of its body upon its own mother's semi-submerged nose. As it grows, it can rest on most parts of her body; it can manage to submerge for longer and longer times with each day that passes. Starting at around 35 seconds at birth and by two months of age can submerge for up to two minutes without any problem at all.

The calf at approximately seven weeks becomes more adventurous, moving away from its mother, sleeping at the river's edge in thick overhanging vegetation. At this stage it cannot graze and is fully dependent on mother's milk. 

Game playing with other calves or young juveniles starts at two months of age. To watch a young calf so tiny with its mouth agape pushing at a much larger hippo also with mouth agape is an amazing sight. One evening just as dusk was settling, I witnessed an astonishing sight. Sadly it was far to dark to catch it on camera. I was returning home along the river beds edge in the part where Happy and his family reside. Suddenly a loud splash caught my attention. To my amazement I saw Happy with the young calf Flame in his entire opened mouth. I assumed he was attacking the calf and in dismay felt that Flame was about to be killed. Happy made an abrupt movement and threw young Flame from his mouth towards the water. She splashed in and then astonishingly moved back to Happy. Her father then took the calf yet again in his widely opened mouth and once more repeated the whole performance. I realized that this was a new form of play, for the game continued until it was too dark for me to observe. Tembia is now seven months of age but is still too young to make any real hippo vocal sounds. His teeth are pushing through so now he grazes alongside his mother at night, but continues to suckle her milk.

The Turgwe River and surroundings look simply magnificent. So far this season, our rains have been even more bountiful than last year's. After the horrors of the drought, we have been blessed with two above average rainy seasons. For myself I continue to live my life with the hippos. The hippos have totally accepted me as part of their environment. With the daily amount of hours I spend with them sharing even their most intimate moments, I believe they consider me as part of the bush around them, which is wonderful for observation purposes as well as giving me a tremendous feeling. These hippos are continuing to live their natural lives thanks to all of you who helped me keep them alive. I hope that more people will be able to come out to our home and meet the Turgwe hippos.