Owen and Mzee: The True Story of a Remarkable Friendship

Before the baby hippopotamus became known as Owen, he lived with his mother in a group, or pod, with about twenty other hippos. They fed and wallowed in and around the Sabaki River in Kenya, a nation on the east coast of Africa. When he was about one year old, heavy December rains flooded the river. The racing water washed Owen and his family down the river, until the freshwater became salty and the river flowed into the Indian Ocean, near the small coastal town of Malindi.
For days, the people of Malindi tried to chase the hippos back up the river. But the hippos enjoyed grazing the grasses along the shore and in the villagers’ yards. Since hippos are the most dangerous animals in Africa, and a full-grown adult can weigh as much as 8,000 pounds, there was little the people could do.