After more than two decades living at the Denver Zoo Conservation Alliance, Mahali the Nile hippo finally moved to his new home in Texas.
But getting him to agree to the trip was not easy; it took more than a year to get the 4,000-pound hippo comfortable with entering the crate that would carry him roughly 700 miles to his preserve in Abilene, Texas. The 12-hour road trip started at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, and the crew drove overnight, stopping periodically to make sure Mahali was hydrated and fed.
“He did so well. He kind of shocked all of us,” said Maura Davis, curator of large mammals at DZCA. She sent her assistant curator on the journey with Mahali, and when Davis woke up the next morning, they were just arriving at the preserve after an event-free trip…