TONGA AND ALDO

On the 10th June 2007 Tonga, a lone hippo bull kept in the Zavata travelling circus in France was confiscated by the French authorities where he had been kept in extremely cruel conditions. He was moved to a local zoo for temporary holding awaiting his relocation to Africa.

Just over a month later on the 20th July 2007 SanWild got another request to accept yet another hippo bull called Aldo that was also to be confiscated from a circus.

On the 29th August Tonga was loaded successfully at the temporary holding facility from where he was transported by road to Schipol International Airport in Amsterdam where he boarded a KLM cargo flight early the next morning to the OR Tambo International airport in Johannesburg.

SanWild expected Tonga early on the morning of the 1st September 2007, but problems with the electrical wiring on the transport truck resulted in no lights and the crew had to wait until first light to get help to fix the problem. On that particular day the temperatures soared to a whopping 34 degrees and we were extremely worried about the hippo’s safety and welfare during the relocation.

When Tonga finally arrived at about 11h00am, the transport truck had a blow out on one of the front tyres just as it approached the offloading area. Fortunately it was not too far and the truck reached the right spot driving on its rim. A hoist was used to lift Tonga's container off the flatbed truck and place it in the gateway of the temporary holding boma. When he got out of the container he immediately went to the small waterhole created especially for him and drank tons of water. He then devoured at least two bales of lucerne. Tonga was clearly extremely hunger.

When we decided to accept the two captive held hippos for free released it was decided to construct a temporary holding enclosure close to the Rhino dam to allow the hippos’ time to adjust and acclimatise before releasing them to the wild. On arrival at SanWild Tonga was released into this holding enclosure.

Arrangements to relocate Aldo, the 2nd hippo, to SanWild continued. More funds was needed to relocate Aldo to Africa and on the 22nd September 2007 KLM Cargo in Johannesburg graciously agreed to sponsor the return flight of the transportation crate to Paris to ensure that the French authorities could go ahead and confiscate Aldo from the circus.

On the 8th October the transportation crate was shipped out from South Africa and returned to Paris. Aldo was confiscated and flown out to South Africa and relocated to SanWild where he too was released into the temporary holding pen from where Tonga had already been released.

On the morning of the 17th December 2007 Aldo was also released from the temporary holding boma. The release went very well, but just as SanWild staff thought that Aldo would walk down to the Rhino dam to join up with Tonga, he changed direction and walked towards the manager’s house. As the daytime temperatures was quite warm that day the hippo chose to enter the thick bush line and soon walked down a donga that made a sharp turn. Fortunately here Andre and John could convince the hippo to turn around and with a camera team in tow; the two of them "herded" Aldo back towards rhino dam. This herding took almost an hour and by the time they reached the dam, the hippo, cameraman and herders were pretty sweaty and tired.

The meeting between Aldo and Tonga went like a dream. There was absolutely no aggression between the two bulls and within 30 minutes of meeting they started playing. Seeing these two previously captive held animals enjoying their new found freedom brought tears to many the bystanders’ eyes and we once again knew what made SanWild so very, very special. The two hippos have remained with each other and spend their days lazing around in the water or grazing on the lush grass.

To watch a video of Tonga on YouTube please click here.

To watch a video of Aldo on Dailymotion please click here.