When a newborn baby hippo was washed up by a flood onto the lawn of his riverside home, the game ranger who found the dying animal lovingly nursed her back to health.
The weakened female survived, put on weight, and grew . . . and g-r-e-w . . . and GREW!
Now the hippo that thinks it’s a family pet has become a giant-sized problem.
For what started out as a cute, tubby 35lbs baby is now a boisterous seven-year-old – equivalent to a human ‘teenager’ -.weighing nearly three-quarters of a ton.
And like many modern teenagers, Jessica, as she has been named, finds family life too comfortable and just won’t leave home.