Here is a lovely picture of little Owen and Mzee in a pond in their enclosure. Owen often enjoys taking a dip.  The name hippopotamus means ‘river-horse’. This is in relation to the species’ semi aquatic lifestyle. In the wild, hippos spend most of their time in water as it acts as a cooling medium as well as offering protection against land predators.

 

Haller Park has numerous Vervet monkeys found in groups.  Baby monkeys usually hold on tightly to their mothers’ soft bellies where they get protection, comfort and food (milk). Mother monkeys are even able to swing from tree to tree without the baby falling. The bond between the mother and baby is so strong that even when the baby monkey is born, the mother monkey will not let the rest of the troop come close to the baby for a while.

Sometimes Cleo is in such a good mood it actually seems like she is posing for a photo. She will wag her tail ever so often and move more actively around her enclosure.

Snakes are wonderful animals but are often misunderstood although some of them are beautiful and totally harmless like the speckled bush snake below. Snakes never blink or close their eyes because they do not have movable eyelids. They instead have a transparent scale covering the eye.

Giraffes are amazing animals. Because of their height they need to have a very strong heart to pump blood all the way up to their head. They also have a long muscular tongue that they use to pick out leaves from thorny branches that they feed from. Their height helps them reach leaves that many other animals can’t get to and the tops of these trees are usually less thorny than the lower parts.

Apart from many of the Nile monitor lizards we have in the park we also have a Savannah monitor. They have a much broader head and stay mainly on land.

Owen is beginning to display more and more typical hippo behaviour, recently i saw him ‘water-scooping’, this is when he moves his head from side to side in the water with his mouth open. He still enjoys to rest his head on Mzee's shell.

Mzee likes to explore all areas of his enclosure. Although some days he walks all the way across the enclosure, he will often return to rest in one area for a week or so, taking walks and then returning to this resting area. Last week he was resting a lot near the ponds and this week he seems to be staying around the fern area. Below he is walking by some ferns with Owen close behind.

Although Aldabra torotioses move slowly they do cover large distances. Here is one of our tortoises crossing the road in the park. You can see that their legs must be very strong to lift their heavy bodies so high off the ground.

Mzee is usually quite active in the afternoon, he walks around the enclosure, eating many different types of plants and leaves. During this time Owen usually follows Mzee, laying down to rest while Mzee eats. In the evening Owen Knows that it is feeding time and he goes to eat his diary cubes, grass and fruit. This time Mzee follows Owen and they eat together. Owens loves to eat bananas, he can usually smell them all the way from his pond and comes rushing out!

Below, Owen is resting loyally by Mzee as he eats.

It is exciting to walk around the park because you never know what you may see. This is a Rhino beetle I found walking around, unlike the chameleon its beautiful red-brown colour stood out against the green of leaves.

About 7 years ago a very young bushbuck was found, stuck in a fence, near a local farm. This bushbuck was brought to Haller Park where she was taken care of. She now stays in the same enclosure as Owen and Mzee! There is also another female bushbuck in the enclosure. Owen seems to get along well with the bushbucks. In this photo Owen, Mzee and the Bushbuck are eating together.

 Bushbuck are shy antelopes, they have long, thin legs that help them when moving through bushy areas.

If you look carefully, you never know what interesting creatures you may find in the park. I was lucky to see this, well hidden, chameleon.

There have been many questions about the 'Owen & Cleo' introduction. We plan to introduce Owen and Cleo very gradually. We hope to start in mid August.

There are big ferns that grow on the edges of Cleos pond.She likes to keep her pond tidy. She will sometimes walk next to these ferns and lean her big body against them to keep them from growing too big, even when a stick or a small tree falls into her pond she usually moves it aside. I have said before that she also loves to play with sticks, she has been playing with sticks almost everyday recently.

Apart from large animals like Hippos and buffalos, there are lots of little animals moving around as well. This lizard is giving my camera a curious look.

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Owen and Mzee are spending a lot of time near the water. Owen usually enters the pond while Mzee is close by, sometimes Mzee enters the pond as well. Here Both Owen and Mzee are enjoying the morning sun.

Although Elands are such big animals they are still quite agile for there size. In Sally and Potty’s pond there is sort of a rank based on size. So potty is King of his pond! The hippos usually only graze in the open field at night, so during they day it’s free for the eland and buffalos. Because it’s the rainy season the fields are full of bright green grass.

I know that so many of you now really want to know what dairy cubes look like! Finally, a picture of a handful of dairy cubes!

I want to share with you this very sweet drawing.A little girl in America named Sara drew a picture of Owen.

Potty is our biggest hippo, we estimate that he weighs over three tonnes. He has a very big head and muzzle. In general, male hippos have much bigger heads relative to their bodies compared to females.There are some Sacred Ibis behind Potty, many different birds love to look for food in the muddy areas near the ponds.

Sally and Potty have a very big enclosure with a big pond for them to move around in. They share the enclosure with two large Cape buffalos.

There are also two Eland in this enclosure. Eland are the biggest species of antelope in the World!

Hippos have very muscular lips that they use to tear off grass and vegetation. They also use their lips and Muzzle to get a sense of the world around them. At night Cleo keeps her head very close to the ground and gets to feel the plant shoots that she eats. She also uses her lips to hold the sticks that she likes to play with.

Owen usually nibbles on Mzee’s hind foot using mostly his lips. I have even seen him using his lips to feel small rocks and sticks. He also likes to keep his muzzle very close to Mzee, especially when he is sleeping, It seems that he is most comfortable this way.