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Bumpy’s Fresh Start

When a baby hippo was found alone in the wild, rescue workers became his family. 

November 9, 2026
By Parker Van Nostrand

Jim McMahon/Mapman®

The baby hippopotamus was crying out loudly when rescue workers found him in May. He was in a shallow river in Kenya, a country in East Africa. The 1-week-old hippo’s mother had died, making him an orphan. 

The rescuers pulled the calf from the river and then called the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, an animal conservation group. The next day, members of the Sheldrick team loaded the hippo onto a helicopter. He was flown to Sheldrick’s sanctuary for orphaned animals. The young hippo’s wrinkled skin earned him the name Bumpy.

“When he arrived, Bumpy was frightened and missing his mother,” says Sean Michael, who works at Sheldrick.

But it wouldn’t be long before Bumpy went from being a scared orphan to a happy hippo.

©Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/Mia Collis

Drink Up! Bumpy’s keepers feed him a special formula every few hours.

A New Home

On Bumpy’s first night in his new home, one of his caretakers wrapped him in a blanket. The hippo cuddled with the keeper all night, just like a human baby would do with its parent.

“He was happy to be in a place where he felt safe and loved,” says Michael.

Since then, the team at Sheldrick has been caring for Bumpy around the clock. Every few hours, he drinks a special formula filled with the nutrients he’d get from his mother’s milk. The growing hippo has also begun tasting the grass that will one day make up most of his diet. 

Wild hippos spend much of their time in rivers or lakes. Bumpy splashes around in a large pool instead. He loves doing tricks like barrel rolls and playing tag with his caretakers. He even naps in the pool, with his head bobbing above the surface! 

Bumpy is chatty, grunting happily all day. That’s helped him befriend the other orphaned animals at the sanctuary. 

“The buffaloes, zebras, giraffes, and a little orphaned elephant adore Bumpy,” Michael says.

©Sheldrick Wildlife Trust/Mia Collis

Sweet Dreams The hippo sleeps on a soft mattress with a keeper by his side.

Call of the Wild

Shutterstock.com 

As happy as Bumpy is, the goal is for him to eventually leave the sanctuary and join a pod, or group, of hippos that lives nearby.

“The call of the wild is strong in animals,” says Michael. “Even an orphan as strongly bonded to his keepers as Bumpy is will hear it in time.”

Like all wild hippos, Bumpy will face many dangers after he’s released. Hippos are a vulnerable species—meaning they have a high risk of becoming extinct in the wild. The biggest threat is habitat loss. Human activities like farming and construction have destroyed many of the clean water sources hippos need to survive. Another problem is poachers, who illegally kill hippos for their meat or teeth.

Wild hippos can also be a danger to each other. Rescue workers think Bumpy’s mother might have died while protecting him from another hippo. 

Until Bumpy is ready to safely return to the wild, his human family will continue to raise him. 

“Animals need people to stand up for them,” says Michael. “Too often we forget that our wild friends need a place on our planet too.”

Get to Know Hippos

  • Hippos are the third-largest land animals. Only elephants and white rhinos are bigger. An adult male hippo can weigh up to 10,000 pounds. 
  • In one night of grazing, a hippo can eat up to 150 pounds of grass.
  • A hippo’s teeth can grow to be about 20 inches long. 
  • Though they spend most of their time in water, hippos can’t swim. Instead, they walk or bounce along the bottom of shallow rivers and lakes.
Shutterstock.com

1. What steps has the team at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust taken to care for Bumpy?

2. What are some challenges that hippos face in the wild?

3. What is the meaning of vulnerable as it is used in the article? What is a context clue in the article that helps you understand this meaning?

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