A young male hippo from Cape Town has officially traded city life for the open waters of the Garden Route, thanks to the City’s dedicated team of wildlife professionals.
Picture: City of Cape Town
This week, the City of Cape Town’s Biodiversity Management branch successfully relocated a four-year-old bull hippo from the False Bay Nature Reserve to Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve – a necessary move as the animal grew too large and territorial for his urban wetland home.
Although hippopotamuses have long been extinct in the wild in the Western Cape, a pod was reintroduced to the False Bay wetland system in 1981 to help control invasive plant species. Since then, the population has flourished. However, as young males mature, instinct drives them to seek out new territory and potential mates — a quest complicated by the city’s boundaries.
One of these adolescent bulls made headlines in 2024 when he wandered into nearby suburbs. While the grassy lawns of Grassy Park might be tasty, they’re far from ideal hippo habitat — and certainly not what residents expect to see outside their windows.
This time, the City acted proactively. Throughout a 17-hour operation, wildlife vets and conservation staff used a specially constructed boma to capture the animal and safely load him onto a flatbed truck for the journey to Plettenberg Bay.
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“Hippos are very sensitive animals, and notoriously difficult to capture and transport because of their size, strength, potentially dangerous nature and sensitivity to stress,” said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews. “These types of operations are fraught with risks such as capture stress and overheating, cold stress during winter, injury, and logistical challenges. Of course, the staff involved are also at risk, and this is where experience and professionalism count the most.”
City hippo finds a new home in Plet.
This 17-hour-long relocation operation required a boma, a crane, a flatbed truck, highly experienced staff, expert veterinarian services, a lot of patience and months of planning.See: https://t.co/FuLJZSTzZI pic.twitter.com/Jxf3kPxLau
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) July 25, 2025
The journey began late on Tuesday, 22 July 2025. Travelling overnight to reduce heat stress, the hippo arrived safely at Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve just after 8:30am the following morning. By midday, he had already settled into a nearby dam, easing into his new surroundings.
“The Plettenberg Bay Game Reserve provides a suitable and secure habitat for hippos with adequate space, water resources, and an existing hippo population where he can fit in,” added Alderman Andrews.
Back in Cape Town, the Rondevlei Nature Reserve still boasts a healthy pod of hippos for those eager to catch a glimpse. Head to the observation towers and you might spot the rest of this remarkable urban herd enjoying their wetland retreat.
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