BETTY BRIGHT WAS ALSO THERE!

This time Betty Bright came along and was part of the fun morning, the children clapped for her and enjoyed her bits and pieces.  Of course Betty did not want to miss the fun, I thought it would be nice if she was in the picture with Erika and myself?  No?  Look at her face she won't smile just sulking!  I hope she behaves better on Tuesday morning we are visiting Somerset West and the retired persons association.  

HUBERTA TEACHES US ABOUT LITERACY AND CONSERVATION

I am always delighted to share the story of Huberta to audiences both young and old.  The story warms the heart and shows the importance of both literacy and conservation.  The man who shot Huberta was illiterate maybe if he had read about Huberta he would not have fired those shots.  My sincere thanks to Erika Stander the Strand librarian and, the group of teachers who hosted the morning.  The Cape has had wonderful rain and icy cold weather, after the talk we enjoyed hot chocolate and biscuits.  To remember the morning the children were given a picture of Huberta to colour in.  I guess we all had a fun time!

A FUN MORNING AT THE STRAND LIBRARY

I must admit it was a real challenge sharing the story of Huberta with Gr 3 and Gr 4 children at the Strand library on Monday the 27th June.  The children listened attentively, asked many questions and don't think for one minute that they did not know who Huberta was.  I shared the importance of literacy and the conservation of wildlife.  Children always make me smile, one little girl was concerned about conservation and told me her brother nearly killed their duck but the duck never died! 

MAPPING

MAPPING

                                                                          

HUBERTA’S JOURNEY ON GOOGLE EARTH

Huberta’s journey was a remarkable one, the mapping of her journey is a tribute to a young female hippopotamus that walked her way into the hearts of thousands of people around the world.  It is a journey that still captivates the hearts of people, young and old.

Other wandering hippos

There were other wandering hippos, the Amathole Museum newsletter Imvubu writes that there were at least ten other cases of wandering hippos. None as famous as Huberta.

Useful facts about hippo behaviour

Hippo’s spend most of the day either submerged or dozing on sand bars or rocks.  Hippo’s are capable of moving extremely fast through water either swimming or walking submerged under the water along clearly defined paths for about six minutes.

Hippo’s are mainly freshwater animals, they can however sustain themselves in saline conditions, provided they have free and regular access to fresh water.

When food is scarce and not available near the resting pool, a hippo may move as far as 30 km per night feeding.  They normally emerge from the water at night grazing along rivers, estuaries and wetlands.  If no food is available near the water they will move inland to food.  They prefer open areas of short grass crop, an adult can eat up to 30 kg of grass in a night.

One can safely conclude that hippo’s are capable of travelling large distances overland moving from one water system to the next.

Mapping Huberta’s route

Those places of confirmed sightings were plotted first. This information was obtained from various letters, paper clippings and archive material from the Amathole Museum. These places were symbolized by a hippo icon on the map.

Plotted or plotting is a word used in topography, an easier description would be mapping. 

Topography is the detailed map of the surface features of land.  It includes mountains, hills, creeks and other bumps and lumps on that particular part of the earth.  That is how we could discover nearly for certain where Huberta walked.

The route mapped was in certain areas educated guesswork.  It may be that in some places the indicated route is close to Huberta’s actual route, in other sections it might be way off or be totally wrong. Her footprints will never be precisely known.

One certain fact is known, she always travelled south

Included is an alternative section between East London and the farm De Hoop, this will show how far the route can vary.

Mapping the Huberta route clearly shows that Huberta’s journey from St Lucia in the north to the farm De Hoop on the Keiskamma river was in fact possible.

Huberta the hippo : A MAP SHOWING HUBERTA'S ROUTE

Huberta the hippo : A MAP SHOWING HUBERTA'S ROUTE: The route Huberta traveled was mapped in Google Earth with the help of a cartographer.  Working on this route I discovered even more how u...

HIPPO COLLECTOR

Hippos are far more popular than I thought.  Today I met an avid hippo collector Alexander Raymond, he just loves hippos and although he knows that they are dangerous to him they are the most remarkable animals.

Alex loves the story of Huberta and he has a copy of Huberta the untold story and the latest publication Huberta the hippo who went on a journey.  Lenie his wife showed me a copy of a workbook for school children featuring about hippos.  Interesting!

Chatting with him this morning he was delighted to hear that Huberta can still be viewed at the Amathole museum in King Williams Town. Now I am wondering do we have any other hippo collectors?  Maybe you not a collector but have a favourite hippo somewhere in your home or garden.  I would love to see these and maybe share on my blog or facebook.