On the 10 April 2017 a week old male baby hippo was brought into the centre. He was found on the edge of the Blyde River near the Blyde Wildlife Estate walking up and down calling for its mother who was nowhere in sight. As it is a social animal and needed company 24 hours around the clock we had three enthusiastic volunteers, Caitlin Robertson from Australia, Alison Lamolinara from England and Emmanuelle Donckier de Donceel from Belgium taking shifts night and day to keep it company. One of our staff members Becky was responsible for the hippos feeding and overseeing that all was in order. Unfortunately regardless of all our efforts and hard work he passed away on the 12 April 2017 of Pneumonia. We should have expected this as the animal was in deep stress and had no food for at least 4 days before coming to us. Very sad.