Changes in the Turgwe Hippos lives
2006 has so far seen quite a few changes in the lives of the Turgwe Hippos. Now for the first time in seven years there are two bulls back with their own family. This, last occurred in 1999 when Happy, the one bull had the upstream section of the Turgwe River with his females, while Bob the larger, more dominant bull lived at the Chabata area of the Turgwe with his group.
It all began in the early part of the year when we had good rain and the river once more flooded, so all the hippos left their respective pools, and like in every rainy season moved all over the area in search of quieter estuaries and shallower water for their calves. Once the river had subsided I found that one female, Mystery, had moved away from the main group, accompanied by her two young sons, Kuchek and Zen the youngest. Zen had been slightly wounded by another hippo and had a large hole in the side of his stomach so Mystery moved downstream, initially into the area which the people invaded back in 2001.
There, she was joined by Pavodok, a young male who has always been a close companion of Kuchek. They are of similar age, Pavodok born in 2000 and Kuchek in 2001. Mystery has always been a favourite female of Robin the larger, older bull, so he followed her. The next report I received was that some hippos had moved into a smaller river called the Mokore, which is an affluent of the Turgwe and about four miles downstream.
To get there, we had to drive the long way around, as the river was not crossable on foot; this is a distance of around 15 miles. On reaching the Mokore Bridge we found not only Mystery, her sons and Robin, but also Surprise and her young son Chubby, along with another hippo, whom I initially believed was a Turgwe Hippo which had moved away a few years ago.
Since then I have realized that it is actually Tacha, but she has quite changed her character. She is much more assertive, will come forward and actually charge if approached too closely, and seems a bit bigger than she was. Perhaps she is pregnant, which would explain this change in character, as normally Tacha is a shy hippo. Her close companion Climber, who is of a similar age also being born in 2000, left the Turgwe River at the beginning of the year and has not returned. I believe Climber moved to one of the other river systems, as many females have done this in the last few years. Females often leave this area when they are around five to six years of age, looking I believe, for a new male to live with.
Back at Hippo Haven the rest of the family moved into the area called Chabata, where the people who invaded here back in 2001 are living. Most of those people have been caught at one stage or another poaching, and we have personally caught and seen several of them trying to kill the animals. I was obviously very worried for the hippos’ safety, but at that stage in March there was enough water in the pools for the people not to be able to approach the hippos too closely.
Only Abe, a mature mother, her own calf Tsakus, a female, and her grandson Bobin, remained nearby Hippo Haven. Abe had taken over the care of Bobin. This is the first time I have recorded a related female caring for her own daughter’s calf. Odile had weaned Bobin earlier in the year. Odile was a first time mother and had been the most protective female I have ever seen. Her son was also weaned in a very unusual way, in that she did not attack him or cut him, which often mothers have to do in order to discipline their calf and teach it that it can no longer continue to suckle her milk.
In Odile’s case she just moved off from Bobin and left him with his grandmother Abe. Abe took him over and to this day, both Bobin and Tsakus are often lying upon Abe’s semi-submerged body in the pools. He is only five months older than Tsakus and when I watch them together you could believe they were twins if you did not know their history. Abe treats him as if he was her own, and the two calves live happily beside her at all times.Then in May I received a report from one of the game scouts that he had seen a large hippo in the Chabata area with its face covered in blood. Obviously Jean-Roger and I rushed down to that area. We went there from the other side of the river, as being part of the land these people took over, it is unwise for us to be seen there. We found Blackface and all her family and offspring; with them was Tembia the young bull. He had a large, fresh cut above his eye but seemed perfectly ok and it was no longer bleeding, but I assumed he must have been the hippo that the scout mentioned. There was no sign of the other young male Storm. Storm was six months away from maturity, while Tembia was just nearly 13 years of age and had already fathered two calves although he did not have his own family in a permanent territory. Last year, Abe and her older daughter Surprise, and sometimes Odile, lived with him but his pool shrank to a very small size so they rejoined Robin.
Storm had been the first male hippo that somehow had managed to stay with his mother up to his nearly tenth year, but now he was missing. A few days later Jean-Roger and I were watching the hippos from the riverbank in the Chabata area. We were concealed as the people tend to harass us if they see us. Then suddenly I see two young men approaching the hippos and they are picking up huge rocks. They crossed into the river at its most shallow part, and then climbed up onto some rocks that jut out into the one channel. They then began to hurl their missiles at the family of hippos. Poor Tembia has been harassed in the past by these people, so he wisely moved into the deeper sections of the pool but I moved out of the hidden part and made sure that the men could see me. As they did, they left off trying to hurt the hippos and started to run at speed in my direction. Jean then made his presence known but they continued shouting and running towards us, so we moved back towards Hippo Haven.
We called the person in charge of security for the Conservancy on the radio, and he came along that afternoon, accompanied by two Zimbabwe policemen who were in the Conservancy working with the scouts, arresting poachers. We made statements and basically explained to them that if the people continued to harass the hippos by hurling rocks at them, then sooner rather than later somebody would get killed. That it would probably be an innocent woman or child going down to the river to collect water, rather than the two men doing the actual aggression. Yet, whatever the case it would not be the animals’ fault, but the men doing this would be asking for such an action from the hippos, who would only be defending themselves and their calves.
The police promised to have a meeting with the local “war veteran” and the people but we have heard since that the meeting never occurred, as they have to have permission from their superiors and they never got it. So I am sure that if hippos move back to that area, they will continue to be harassed.
Fortunately, one day after the incident the hippos came home. They moved right next to Hippo Haven into Bob’s old weir pool, but this time it was Tembia in charge of the 9 hippos. Odile was missing, as was Storm.
Then I had another report to say that there was a large, dead hippo in a gully in the invaded area, and that it looked like he had been killed by another hippo. I immediately thought the worst and that it was Storm. Since the people invaded this Conservancy back in 2000, 4 hippos have died. None at the hands of man, but in the sixteen years that I have studied these hippos the four that died all have died in the last five years. All of them were hippos I have never known since birth. In Storm’s case I have known him since he was born in January 1997, and so for once I could not face going to see his body. Jean-Roger kindly offered to take the camera and take as many photos as he could, so that I could identify the hippo, and he took along the game scout for security.
On studying the photographs I found a scar on the top part of the tail that Storm had. As well, the age of the hippo coincided with Storm’s, so I was 99% sure it was him. He had bled to death in the gully, as the signs were very clear to Jean-Roger. The hippo had been dead for about one week, which coincided with the time the scout had seen Tembia with blood upon his face. I believe that Storm obviously did not back down from Tembia and hence paid the ultimate price. He had been wounded in a fight back in 2003 but had survived the wounds, this time he was not as lucky.
For me, it is a large loss but at least he was not killed by man; often young hippo bulls do get killed by more dominant ones. I have known Tembia since he was born in June 1993, and his mother Lace actually conceived when I fed all the hippos in the horrendous drought of 1991 /1992. So Tembia is of equal importance to me as Storm, therefore I had to accept that this was all part and parcel of the natural order of things.
Although I still believe that if the two other pools in the invaded area did not have people there at all times, then perhaps Storm might have moved there and not stood up to a fight with Tembia. I shall never know if this is true or not. All I know is that the hippos do not want to live with people who harass them and throw rocks at them, and so if the hippos can be away from the people, they will be.
Seven days after the death of Storm I was sitting at the weir pool watching his mother Cheeky and his two sisters Relief and Hope, all living side by side with Tembia, when Odile appeared at the river’s edge. She was accompanied by a new-born calf of about two weeks of age. Seeing this calf, who is actually a male, has helped a lot in alleviating the sadness of Storm’s death. Nature takes a life but another comes along. Gem, as I have called him, looks a lot like Tembia, and he and his mother have been accepted by Tembia. Tembia now has 11 hippos as his family and he has taken over the three pools in our area. Robin remains with the other six hippos in the Mokore River.
All of this occurred just before I was due to fly back again to England, this time to give only one talk for a Zimbabwean artist by the name of Patrick Mavros. Patrick has a gallery in London, situated in the Fulham Road and managed by his equally talented son Alexander. In this elegant studio one can see some of the wonderful animal silver creations. Patrick and his talented sons create superb sculptures of Africa’s wild animals. He has the most amazing silver hippos of which I am lucky enough to own a couple of tiny pieces as well as the gold hippo I wear around my neck, which was designed by Patrick and bought for me by Jean-Roger.
Patrick had met me by accident last year when I was at Harare airport on my way to England. Then it was the first time I had been back to the place of my birth for sixteen years and I was talking at six venues around the country. Patrick told me that he wanted me to talk at his gallery and in their usual efficient manner, he and Alexander set about achieving this.
On the evening of June 20th , over 85 people attended my talk at the gallery. Everything was so perfect, the catering, the champagne, the amazingly beautiful setting and the organization by his very capable staff, All was of top quality in every way. I was totally terrified, as coming from my own home in the bush to such a gathering of society people was somewhat nerve racking.
I mean, I never wear high heel shoes, so my feet have become used to flat shoes and the bush environment. I last wore makeup about seventeen years ago. The complete change from our own dusty and rugged environment to a place of such elegance and style was really overpowering, but somehow I did not faint and the talk was well received. In fact the applause was loud and appreciative, and many people spoke to me afterwards. All had thoroughly enjoyed the evening.Patrick kindly donated 20% of all sales of his hippos over the next two weeks and hopefully some of the people at the talk may at a later stage help the Turgwe Hippo Trust. We are still hoping to be able to rebuild the Trust’s Land Rover. It needs a total engine overhaul and the steering sorted out. Now, when you drive her you literally move from one side of the road to the other and she is burning oil and is pretty sick.
After the talk I managed to catch a train and go once more to Cornwall and stay with the equally talented sculptress, Suzie Marsh. She and her husband Doug Dale are also artists. Suzie supports four of the Turgwe Hippos and advertises for us at all the shows she attends. She also has used my own photographs of the Turgwe Hippos in her work and her hippos in bronze resin and ceramics are absolutely superb. In fact I was totally spoilt, in that she gave me a 5 kg (10 lbs) ceramic sculpture of “Bob” to bring home.
I have never carried anything so carefully in my life before. Bob not only made it home but now graces my living room and has pride of place.
While with Suzie and Doug, I managed to meet up with two more hippo supporters, Chris and Sarah Watts, so that too was wonderful. Sadly during this trip I did not have time to meet other parents, but at the London talk 11 people from in and around London, who I either have met or who support the hippos, managed to attend so I met a couple of new foster parents,I then gave another talk but this time to eight-year old girls from Garden House School. This was organized by Bettina Oppenheim and once more was held at Patrick Mavros Gallery. I had been told that there would be 15 children, but in the end 35 little girls came along. They were simply wonderful and asked me so many questions that I actually ran out of time. I was so carried away with talking to them that the hour just disappeared.
I was gone for only 11 nights and must admit that this time I was eager to come home. The new calf and the subsequent changes in the hippos’ lives were requiring my presence on a daily basis if possible.
Jean-Roger once more looked after everything while I was away, as we cannot leave our home without somebody being there at all times. The people have stolen property from other people and they would just poach even more if they knew we were not here. When Jean-Roger drove up to collect me in Harare the game scout who has been working with us on and off for six months was caught, himself in cahoots with a poacher. Other scouts from the Mokore safari camp where he is employed caught a poacher in the Chabata area and he said he was working with Chada. When the police interviewed him, he admitted this. This was very upsetting as he is now the third scout that has worked with us to be caught poaching. All around the Conservancy, game scouts are being caught working with the poachers. A lot of it is due to the money that the poachers make from killing the animals and selling the meat. It is far more than the scouts are paid and the fine that the poachers receive, if they are actually fined, is so tiny that it is a laughing matter. They usually are back poaching within one week of being caught.
Although we give bonuses on top of the pay that the scouts receive from their employers, it is still not as much as what poaching brings in. So, more and more honest game scouts are turning to illegal pursuits, and until the courts change the sentences and the magistrates lock away a lot of these second and third time offenders, I do not see a solution to the problem.
What money the Trust made from the talk was actually used up by the Land Rover dying on my return. Her bearings on a back wheel went and damaged the axle. So the talk did manage to sort one problem out but we still need to raise funds to do a complete engine overhaul. So between the Land Rover and the scout, as always things happen while I am away, as that is the nature of Africa.
Thankfully I have seen 19 of the hippos and the only one I have not seen lately is young Pavodok but I am sure he is fine, just keeping his distance from Tembia. Being only six years of age he would not try to challenge Tembia.
We are preparing now for a big change in our lives, in that Jean-Roger has to return to his own work as a Geologist. He has stayed at home for over six years in order to keep me safe but we can no longer afford to continue living of our savings. So in a few days time, he leaves for a short duration work in the ex-USSR, in Kyrgizstan. We managed to find a male person who has kindly offered to come along here and act as a kind of security for me while Jean-Roger is away. This chap we do not know, but again Forbes Mavros kindly organized it and the man arrives here in a few days time. Hopefully nothing drastic will occur while Jean-Roger is away and John will enjoy himself and things will work out well.
I am a terribly independent person and for years I lived here at Hippo Haven completely alone while Jean went away for his work. So for three weeks at a time, I lived alone and was never afraid or in any way lonely as I really enjoy being alone. Yet times have changed in Zimbabwe and for a woman alone in the bush, when the neighbours are no longer just elephant, lion and hippos, but people who do not have kind intentions, things have to sadly change. We will see how this first time goes. There is another man from America who may like to come along later this year and if all goes well then I may end up meeting quite a few new people over the next several months, all so that we can have a life again.
For six years we have lived hand to mouth and we cannot keep hoping that these people are really going to be removed from here like we are told. We have to have enough money to eat well and for emergencies. So even a simple life in the bush involves so many outside influences, and hence the need for material wealth and security. I have to hope that my next newsletter will be brighter with no deaths of hippos and no problems arising from poaching or from Jean-Roger being away from here.
In the meantime all hippos, thank God, are in good health and we continue to have a hope for a better future for Zimbabwe.
I would like to make a special thank you to Mark Powell, for once more being there for me on my arrival in London and driving me around, and for now running the web site of the Turgwe Hippos.
Karen Paolillo. Hippo Haven, Save Valley Conservancy, Zimbabwe. 23rd July 2006.
