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Zoo's Hippo Must Hit the Road
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At the same time, JT said, Happy is still a potentially dangerous animal. "You're talking about 7,000 pounds," he said, roughly the weight of a Hummer. "Even if he bumped you, you're dead."
"We're looking at an animal that happens to be one of the most dangerous animals in Africa," he said. Hippos, capable of mauling, crushing or drowning the unwary, "kill more people in Africa a year than any other animal except mosquitoes."
And JT is not really sure that Happy knows him.
"I think he knows my voice," the keeper said. "I think he knows my smell, or when I come around. I think so. I'm one of the keepers that's scared to say, 'Yeah, yeah, the animal knows me,' then tomorrow get killed if I misjudge."
But there is a bond. "I do love this guy, don't get me wrong," he said.
For his part, Happy will let JT cut his teeth, a dicey procedure that has to be done in captivity, where hippos' teeth can grow eight to 12 inches long from the lack of the combat that they engage in over turf and females in the wild.
The job requires care. If Happy decides to close his huge mouth, JT must get his hand and the cutting blade out in time. The keeper usually checks Happy's eyes to see if the hippo's up for tooth-cutting that day. "His eyes tell you everything," the keeper said.
Happy seems to stay submerged when other keepers pass by, but surfaces whenever JT is around, sometimes resting his chin on the poolside. And he obeys some of JT's basic hand and voice signals.
But the keeper puts the most work into the relationship.
One recent day, clad in work boots, jean shorts and a polo shirt, he spent well over an hour cleansing Happy's outdoor pool -- draining the water, shoveling out mud that had washed in from overnight rain, and hosing down the concrete.
Inside, Happy was submerged in his indoor pool, waiting for breakfast, which JT had not had time to prepare.
It was okay, JT said. He would make Happy a nice kale salad for dinner.
Parting will be difficult, he said. "I know what has to happen," he said. "I know what's best for this guy. It's going to be hard. I'm going to have to accept it.
"I was hoping to retire working with hippos, having another baby hippo," he said. "My plans were like, wow, I was going to be the hippo man. Now I've got to, hopefully, find birds or reptiles or something to take care of."
"It's sad."
