01/05/2021
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Today is our birthday and we are 8 years old so to celebrate this momentous occasion we have adopted a real life hippo and her name is 'RELIEF'. How could we not choose her when her name represents 'a feeling of reassurance and relaxation following release from anxiety or distress.'
This has come at the perfect time for The Wise Hippo as we get ready to reveal our fresh, new look to the world. Relief is our Wise Hippo mascot and she is a wise mother, knowledgeable and calm in nature. ( More details on the launch of our rebrand is coming soon so watch this space.....exciting!)
More about our hippo 'Relief 'and her life:
'Relief and her son Max are at this moment with Kuchek the bull and the other 3 hippos but sometimes she leaves them and lives in another pool just with her son. She has always been a loner as when she was a very small calf she had quite a traumatic experience alongside her mother Cheeky. The story is mentioned in a book ( a Hippo's love story) and involved a poacher who Cheeky
probably killed. Relief was only 6 weeks of age at that time and it must have proved very upsetting for such a little calf to witness.
When she was older she actually left the family and moved away from here with a young male called Bobin. We did not see her for nearly 3 years and then she reappeared at the pool with the others but not with Bobin. She was extremely aggressive when she came back here and acted more like a male hippo than a female. Gaping angrily when I appeared at the river and often attempting small mock charges. I then realized why, as she was pregnant but also I think she had had a terrible experience as a calf and possibly when she left this area as well. As soon as she gave birth to her first calf Darrow, a young male, in 2014 she totally calmed down. Now she is a very gentle hippo having had two more sons. Steve (who is famous as he now comes along to our home every night) born in September 2017 and Max her latest son born in March 2020. She still likes to gape (open her mouth) for my camera but she is in no way aggressive and having had three sons her temperament now is gentle and if anything subservient to the other hippos. A young mother like Relief tends to give birth every three years so perhaps by 2023 she will be pregnant again and then young Max will also have to leave home as males cannot stay with the family group. They live alone or if they are lucky they meet another young male and when they reach about 9 to 10 years of age they establish their own area to live in and usually female hippos find them and stay with them.
Relief should hopefully remain in our area in the Turgwe River now for the rest of her life so I will be able to follow her forever I hope. I really miss the males when they leave here so it is so lovely to have her older son Steve coming to our house every night to be fed and be part of our wild animal family at home.
Relief’s mother Cheeky lives upstream with the other bull Tembia and the larger family of hippos which totals 16 animals. They are about 6 kilometers away from us and so far this year I have not managed to see them all, as the rains have been so good the river has not been crossable to drive up to them.
Relief thanks you so much for your support and for caring about her life.'
Huge thanks to all that support the Wise Hippo so please raise a glass for us today as we celebrate 8 years of making a huge difference in the birthing world.
Click here to find out more about our Wise Hippo 'Relief' - https://www.savethehippos.info/product/relief/
