Hippo's future in the balance

2008-06-03 19:40

Tshwarelo eseng Mogakane and Thabisile Khoza

Hoedspruit - Jessica the hippo, who starred in the Leon Schuster blockbuster movie, Mr Bones has been found to be "potentially, extremely dangerous" in a report released by the Endangered Wildlife Trust (EWT).

The eight-year-old hippo was adopted by former game ranger Tonie Joubert and his wife, Shirley, after she was washed up on the banks of the Selati River near Hoedspruit in Limpopo as a day-old calf in the 2000 floods.

She is so tame that she drinks coffee from a bottle, shares dog pellets with the couple's dogs and sleeps under a blanket at night.

When their neighbour, Sybrand van Vuuren, allegedly threatened to shoot her because she was damaging his vegetable crops, which he farms for the Woolworths and Pick 'n Pay supermarket chains, Woolworths commissioned the EWT's wildlife conflict prevention group to investigate the matter.

Group manager Tim Snow found that Jessica posed a threat to humans as she grew older.

'Become extremely aggressive'

"Because of her dietary needs and her age, Jessica is wandering more and more frequently on to neighbouring properties. This poses a potential risk to human safety and, more seriously, to human life," reads his report.

Snow also expressed concern that Jessica was now sexually mature and could have calves.

"In wild hippos, females are highly protective of their young and become extremely aggressive towards any intruder," he says in the report.

He said Van Vuuren had shown him where Jessica was believed to have damaged plumbing and a fly-screen door.

The report includes pictures of Jessica interrupting a braai at Van Vuuren's house and raised the question of whether the Jouberts would be liable if she ever harmed anyone or their property.

It was also noted that the Jouberts might be reluctant to get rid of Jessica because tourists paid R70 each to interact with her.

On the day Snow visited the Jouberts, about 70 people visited Jessica, he said.

He warned that surprise encounters with hippos were often fatal for humans in Africa.

"An adult female weighs about 2 000 kilograms and even an unintentional trampling by a hippo running back to the safety of a river could be fatal. This dangerous scenario exists with Jessica right now," said Snow.

He has advised Van Vuuren to use electrical fencing to keep Jessica at bay and that the Jouberts cover the costs.

Won't harm Jessica

If the Jouberts and Van Vuurens disagree, then Jessica should be taken to a conservation area, said Snow, to live with wild hippos and as far from human contact as possible, or, as an absolutely final alternative, be donated to a zoo.

Woolworths' head of foods, Julian Novak, said the company was still assessing Snow's report and gave the assurance that Van Vuuren had undertaken not to harm Jessica.

"Mr Van Vuuren has said he does not intend to harm Jessica. He has assured Woolworths that he has never had any intention of harming her," said Novak.

A spokesperson for the Jouberts, Harriet Pratten, did not return any messages left for her regarding the report.

- African Eye