Hippo Is Raised By Humans - The World's Oddest Animal Couples

And you see, there's Jessica. Yeah. She's an absolute beauty, isn't she? Oh, she's rather good looking. Look at her. So this is Jess. This is Jess. Yes, Jessica is a hippopotamus. Shirley and her husband, Tony, took her in when she was separated from her mother as a newborn. Oh, you're so thirsty, Jess. She's 13. Look at those teeth. She definitely likes Roy Bush tea, huh? Oh, she loves it. That's it. So tell me about how you came to have Jessica in the first place. How did it happen? Well, we found her in the year 2000 with the floods. And she was washed away from her mother. Right. And well, she washed out just in front of her house. So I ran down and I touched her. How small was she? She was premature. And she still had on her umbilical cord. So she literally had been born, the floods happened, and she got washed up. What happened then? We took her into the house. And Tony, with his game ranging experience, he actually knew the formula to make it like a mother's milk. And that was the first thing that we actually gave to her. So you didn't have a chance to reunite her with her mother, obviously. No, no. No, she never reunited with her mom. What probably makes this relationship work is a process called imprinting, where an animal forms a very strong bond with the first living thing it sees. As Jessica was washed away from her mother as soon as she was born, it's likely that Tony and Shirley were the first thing she saw. So do you think she's imprinted on you or on Tony? I think, well, it's 50-50. She sees us as her parents. Jessica also regularly wanders off back into the wild. She's not in captivity at all. If Jessica wanted to leave, she could be in Mozambique now. But she always comes home, and she always comes back. Sometimes, she sleeps on the porch with the dog. But at dinnertime, she pops into the kitchen to eat with the family. Oh, look, it's the lakar, my little fish. Walk far, like a bat, my little fish. Oh, good grief. This is unbelievable. Look at that. Wow. On the menu tonight, it's green beans. So you've got a knack, huh? She wants to go out now. When she's finished eating, she goes on her way. Talk to me, my little fish. Tony, an ex-game ranger, has enough experience to know not to try and stop her. You read the signs, didn't you, Tony? You were like, right, she wants to go out. There's no keeping her in. Yes. Because at the end of the day, you do see her as a wild animal still? I see Jessica as a wild animal. She lives a normal hippo life, but she shares her life with us as well. She goes to them, they come to her. She has a normal life. So she still goes out with the wild hippos that are further down the river? That's correct, and upstream as well. So do you think this beauty is going to be able to mate with wild male hippos and have a calf of her own? Do you think that's possible? I don't think it's possible. You know it's possible. It will happen. Within two years, Jessica will have a calf of her own. And I will contact you. You better. I'm inviting you to come down again. You better, Tony. I need to see this young lady with a calf. Thank you, ma'am. I think she agrees. I say, jays.