Adopt a Hippo

For £50 for a year, you can adopt one of a number of hippos (and good luck choosing, because I wanted to adopt them all…)

The history of the Turgwe Hippo Trust

During the terrible drought of 1991-2 Karen Paolillo kept the last 13 Turgwe hippos alive.  The Turgwe river had dried up completely so Jean-Roger Paolillo build them a cemented pan and water trough.  Piping was laid to the nearest borehole (over 18 km away) to fill the pan and trough.

Karen fed these hippos just under a ton of food each night – there was no natural grazing left.  By the end of the drought, they were the only hippos alive.  The others had died or moved away.

Since then, nearly 49 hippo calves have been born.  At the moment, 21 hippos live in the Turgwe River system.

How Hippo Adoptions help

Adopt one of the hippos in the two study groups and you will help the Trust implement a number of projects – these will ensure the long term well-being and survival of the hippo.   For instance, projects completed thanks to the adoption programme so far:

• Building a second, larger cemented pan. Sinking two boreholes.
• Buying all equipment to run the boreholes to the pans.
• Maintaining existing weirs within the river system.
• Keeping the pools open with a sand pump.
• Saving two hippos sentenced to be shot as “crop raiders” in an African communal land, translocating them to the Conservancy.
• Employing four game scouts and patrolling with them to remove wire snares set by poachers to kill the wild animals.
• Feeding the hippos when needed after a lack of grazing due to a localised drought and land taken over by cattle and human occupation.

Adoptions are vital – they help pay the salaries for the game scouts.  They also help keep the Trust’s vehicles on the road and maintain its sand pump.   No sand pump means that the hippos wouldn’t have pools to sit in during the dry season.  The Turgwe River silts up and that’s due to the human encroachment on river banks cultivating their crops and livestock overgrazing the land.

When you adopt a Hippo, you’ll receive via email:

• Three photos of your hippo. An extra photo six months later and an extra bonus photo for a special occasion of your choice, birthday, holiday season, valentine, etc,
• A video clip of your hippo,
• A personalised certificate which you can print out,
• Two updates about your hippo, one on adoption, and one six months later,
• As well as a newsletter about the Turgwe Hippo Trust and a fact sheet about hippos.

Adopt a Hippo from the Turgwe Hippo Trust and save the hippos!

Above image copyright to the Turgwe Hippo Trust