Wildcast

Wolhuter Escorts Hippo from London to Swaziland.
Bizarre but true.
In 1984, Whipsnade Zoo in London was closing its hippo exhibit and donated a 4 year old male hippo, Paul, to Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary in Swaziland.
This may sound like taking coal to Newcastle, but in those days hippo capture hadn’t been perfected and animals died in capture operations. It was also extremely dangerous. My dad was involved in hippo capture back in the ‘60s and actually rode a wild hippo while trying to get a rope around it. Now that was wild stuff AND wild guys.
So I was sent over to London to collect Paul. I arrived there in my shorts much to the dismay of the English as it was the middle of winter.

Paul was all ready for capture from his pen. For months they had been feeding him in the crate he would be transported in. As regular as clock work Paul went into the crate the next morning and the door was closed. Well they tried to close the door and it was jammed. Paul realising what was going on retreated hastily and refused to go back into his crate all day.
Time was running out. I told the guys that if I arrived back in Swaziland without Paul, I would be dead meat and we had to load Paul into the crate.
The vet was called and Paul was darted. We had hoped to push him into the crate before he collapsed completely but that didn’t go according to plan.

Here I was, a lone little African, with a whole bunch of zoo keepers standing around feeling sorry for their little Paul and with a slight dilemma on how to move this beast weighing several tonnes.
I realised it was time I took over. I ordered a tractor and rope and tied the rope around Paul’s midriff and then told the tractor driver to haul him into the crate.
Well that caused a major uproar! The zoo keepers couldn’t believe what I was about to do to their beloved Paul.
With logs lain on the ground in front of him Paul slid effortlessly across them and into the crate.
Then the journey started. We trucked Paul all the way to Dover. Jumped on the ferry across to Calais and then trucked on to Charles De Gaul airport in Paris.
Paul was now fully awake in his crate and relaxed when I fed and watered him.

We loaded up onto a Combi Boeing, which is a plane that carries about half cargo and half passengers, and off to Johannesburg.
I had access to the back of the plane to check on Paul regularly. The pilot didn’t mention to the passengers that they had a full grown hippo on board until we were approaching Johannesburg International Airport.
Safely on African soil for the first time in his life I dowsed Paul with a fire extinguisher, which he thoroughly enjoyed.
But his journey wasn’t over yet. We still had another 5 hours drive to Mlilwane, which was without hiccup and Paul was released to live the life of a free hippo.
Today Paul is well with his own harem of girls.