The city of Cape Town is looking for a safe home for a roaming hippo.
Rondevlei Nature Reserve, which has custody of Zorro, a young male hippo, is hoping to find a private nature reserve to give the animal plenty of water and mud in which to wallow.
The management of the reserve says that Zorro, who has taken up residence in the Cape Flats waste water treatment works, is doing well. He broke out of the reserve to escape attacks by his father.
Zorro is now confined to one of the retention pans by an electric fence and is monitored by conservation staff daily.
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"The next step that the nature conservationists will take is to build a capture boma, which will be attached to a transport crate, similar to the existing structure at Rondevlei," said Rondevlei's manager, Penny Glanville.
The fauna management committee of the city's biodiversity management branch has been investigating a number of possible sites in and around Cape Town that could accommodate the hippo.
"However, as the Rondevlei female hippos have a calf every two years, there is a strong likelihood that, in the near future, the city will have to find a new home for another young calf," Glanville said.
"With private nature reserves being established in the Western Cape, the potential exists to supply them with hippos. The potential partner would have to produce a management plan for the new herd, allow access for inspection by the committee and acquire the relevant permits," she said.
For details, call 021 706 2404.
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This article was originally published on page 3 of Cape Times on March 03, 2009
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