Meet Richie, a four year old male hippo currently living with his human parents. This young male hippo was found during the 2012 floods in eastern South Africa, washed up on the banks of the Blyde River which runs through farmland just outside the Kruger National Park. Many hippos lose their lives during huge floods but Richie was the exception. When Richie was found he was helpless and lost his parents in the process. Richie was in no condition to survive on his own. The farm owners decided to look after the hippo as they had experience with a similar case back in 2000 with a female hippo called Jessica. The fact that Richie is a male makes it impossible for him to survive out in the wild at this age as he won’t be able to defend himself against other bigger and more aggressive males. The young hippo will have to get up to weighing at least a ton before he could be released back into the wild. The video shows how Richie responding to a call to enjoy his favourite daily healthy snack in the form of carrots, fed to him by his human admirers. The young hippo adorably opens his mouth, waiting for the pieces of carrots to be fed to him. While standing with his mouth open we could clearly see his large and scary looking lower canines that are modified into huge tusks. These tusks are the hippo’s defence weapons with which they can bite a human or a crocodile in half. This behaviour is very unusual and very rare to see and it was rather surreal to watch people feeding a male hippo pieces of carrots.