Hee!

Hippo Caught After 10 Months on Run in Cape Town

CAPE TOWN (Reuters) - Relieved conservationists have recaptured a young hippopotamus that spent almost 10 months on the run near Cape Town after fleeing a nature reserve where it was being bullied by an older dominant male.

The hippo, known affectionately as Hugo or Houdini, escaped from the Rondevlei Nature Reserve through a broken fence in February, and was caught on Thursday after a dramatic 3-1/2 hour chase through waterways and reeds during which six tranquilizer darts were fired into his hide.

"At one stage there were two of us on the animal's back but it just kept on going," the greatly relieved Rondevlei manager, Dalton Gibbs, told Reuters on Friday. Conservationists might have had to shoot Hugo if he had not been caught, he said.

The young hippo will now be moved to an Eastern Cape private reserve, about 1,000 km (620 miles) east of Cape Town, where he will form the nucleus of a new herd.