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A two-week-old baby hippo sat alone on the bank of the Zambezi River in Zambia, a country in Africa. His mother was dead. The morning sun rose and with every passing minute he lost more strength. Without his mother, the baby probably wouldn’t make it through the night.

Luckily, Ian Stevenson and his friends saw the baby hippo. They took him back, fed him milk and eggs. The young animal was saved and soon doubled his weight. He seemed happy and healthy.

Later, the hippo, now called Douglas, was moved to an ideal home at Chipembele, a wildlife center owned by Ann and Steve Tolan. They built a sleeping place for Douglas by a pool where he liked to swim. They fed him every three hours. Douglas enjoyed playing with the Tolans’ pet dogs and swimming in the pool. Sometimes at night, other hippos came from the nearby river to eat grass. At first, Douglas would walk into his pool to hide. “But he soon fought against his shyness and played with them,” Tolan says. Douglas remained at Chipembele for about five years before he was moved to another part of Zambia.