A hippo rescue sanctuary— operating for the podless calves who can’t go home to a pod.

A hippo calf without a pod doesn’t survive on its own — the failure modes are snaring on the dam, waterway displacement from the range the pod defended, and maternal loss that leaves the juvenile stranded after weaning. We draw the line at the wildlife-manager intake report: when the calf can’t rejoin a wild herd, the sanctuary is the next step. Hand-rearing under rotating keepers, a quarantine dam for stabilization, and lifelong residency once weaning proves permanent.

87¢ of every dollar at Usizo Wildlife Rescuelands on animals; the remaining 13¢ covers the audited operating reserve, the CPA filings, and the cost of donors hearing from us once a year instead of every month. The quarantine dam, the hand-rearing enclosure, and the retained wildlife-manager cover move together under the same audited line items as the elephant and rhino operations.

The $4M, 24-month care-and-infrastructure campaign supports the ongoing operation and maintenance of the hippo quarantine dam and hand-rearing enclosure, plus staged waterway-fencing improvements across the primary sanctuary land we own and additional land we lease. The work sits alongside the elephant quarantine bomas and rhino orthopaedic suite — one veterinary retainer, one ground crew, one per-intake ledger. We publish the per-intake ledger alongside the annual financial report so funders can trace allocations to supported work and, after an intake where appropriate, the relevant animal record. Updates follow privacy and animal-welfare considerations; no particular animal is promised in advance.