How an English woman ended up becoming ‘the Hippo Lady’ of Zimbabwe

‘I put animals above people,’ Karen Paolillo admits. ‘It sounds terribly dramatic but if I had to choose between saving a human’s life and saving an animal’s life, I’d choose the animal.’

Karen is founder of the Turgwe Hippo Trust based in the south east of Zimbabwe. She has spent decades caring for the gentle giants and names each one in her care. The likes of Wonky, Cheeky, Humpty and Steve have called the Turgwe Hippo Trust home over the last 30 years.

Karen has battled through droughts, stood up against poachers and endured ‘hell’ when her husband was arrested over a hippo-based misunderstanding. She’s referred to as ‘Madam Mvuu’ by locals, which translates to ‘Mrs Hippo’ in the Zimbabwean language of Shona. Internationally, she’s known as ‘The Hippo Lady.’

From her house in Zimbabwe, Karen tells Metro how a young girl from Buckinghamshire came to be in Africa caring for one of the world’s most dangerous animals. Thunder cracks overhead as she starts to speak; a storm is coming, the wildlife expert warns. 

An escape to the circus

Karen was animal crazy growing up; pony-themed wallpaper stretched across her room in the village of Shenley Church End, Buckinghamshire. Books like Tarzan of the Apes and Born Free lined her bookshelf. Karen’s mum worked at the nearby Woburn Abbey petting zoo where animals like guinea pigs, rabbits and a llama lived. 

‘I was surrounded by animals growing up,’ Karen recalls. ‘By the age of seven I could tell tourists all about the local wildlife at the Abbey. I fell in love with a Welsh mountain pony there called Kuchek and my mum saved up for a year to buy him for me. He was an amazing little thing and this was my first real bond with an animal.’ 

Then a circus came to town and everything changed for Karen, then 15. With Shetland ponies and beautiful Arab stallions as part of the show, the teenager was obsessed and offered to groom the animals for free. During one visit, she asked circus owner Peter Hoffman if she could join.

Karen recalls: ‘Next thing I know, my mum was freaking out in the kitchen with a telegram in her hand. It was a letter inviting me to join Circus Hoffman in London. I had my own caravan and my job was to walk a big Highland cow around the circus ring every night.’

While Karen enjoyed her three-week summer adventure with the circus, she was often told to ‘wind her neck in’ after she pointed out conditions animals were living in. She balked every time she saw a lion stuffed into a cage or a bear muzzled and chained. 

A few months later, she left school and spent six months as a journalist at a news agency in Buckinghamshire before moving in with a cousin in Bournemouth, where she got a job at a casino.

However, what Karen really wanted to do was work with animals overseas. 

By chance, she met a croupier at the casino who had once lived in Zimbabwe, and reached out to his old company and asked if they needed any staff. Just 10 days later, Karen, then 19, jumped on a plane to start her new life. 

Love and lions

‘I didn’t really want to work in a casino,’ Karen laughs, recalling her early months abroad working as a croupier in Zimbabwe. ‘But I needed a reason to get to Africa. I ended up putting an advert in a newspaper to ask if there were any jobs with animals suitable for a young woman. It didn’t really work, I had farmers reply and ask if I could marry them.’

But then a safari company in Zimbabwe eventually decided to take a chance on the young Brit. She sat the National Parks Professional Guides’ license exam – the first woman to do so – and passed.

It meant Karen could finally swap stuffy casinos for the open bush of Africa where she took tourists out to get photos of wild animals.

In the late eighties, Karen’s life nearly took a very different route. She was sent a letter by George Adamson, the so-called ‘Lion Man of Africa’, who offered her a place at his sanctuary in Kenya. It was a brilliant opportunity, but Karen chose to stay and learn more as a safari guide. She’d also met future husband, French geologist Jean-Roger, who had a job in Zimbabwe. 

‘In 1989, George Adamson was actually murdered by bandits and a girl who worked for him was raped,’ Karen says sadly. ‘Just horrible. That could have been me, if I had gone.’

Drought, disaster and determination

In 1992, a massive drought hit Southern Africa. Karen and husband Jean-Roger lived in a caravan near the Turgwe River. As the water vanish and grass disappear, it meant that the local hippo population were left in grave danger.

‘Everything in me said “I have to do something about this, I can’t let them die,’ Karen remembers. ‘You could see rib cages poking out from some hippos as they’d gone so long without food. In those days my husband had a good job and a bit of money, so I pinched a few thousand and told him “I’m going to save some hippos.”’

To feed the animals, Karen bought things called ‘horse cubes’ and made a ten-hour round trip to the Zimbabwe capital Harare to stock up on soybean hay. Meanwhile, Jean- Roger built ‘a huge swimming pool’ 22ft wide and 75ft long near their home so the hippos could bathe and avoid dehydration. 

When rain finally came, Karen was determined to keep up her work and founded the ‘Turgwe Hippo Trust’ in 1994. ‘I’d learned more about hippos in ten months during the drought than in years as a safari guide,’ she says. ‘I did not want to stop.’

Kidnapping and poachers

The numbers of hippos in Africa have dropped from around 160,000 to 90,000 over the last 20 years as droughts, sport hunting and poaching ravage the country. Their tusk-like sharp teeth can be sold as an elephant ivory alternative. Karen and Jean-Roger deploy rangers to protect their herd and have discovered thousands of snares on their land. The couple have come face to face with AK47s when they encounter poachers.

Things reached a climax during heightened political tensions in Zimbabwe in 2005. Police appeared at the couple’s home and led Jean-Roger away in handcuffs. They claimed he had murdered a poacher but he was swiftly let go when it emerged there was zero evidence for this. In reality, Karen says, it is suspected a hippo named Cheeky had killed the invader when he strayed into her water habitat at night. Even when Jean-Roger was released by police, a ‘violent mob’ still visited the sanctuary to threaten the couple.

Karen has always refused to leave Zimbabwe despite the threats which have come her way.

‘We’ve stuck it out,’ she says. ‘I am never going to leave our hippos to die. 

‘I am a strong person but I’m also a woman. I used to be very emotional, very sensitive. I still cry, but you can’t cry in Africa in front of people. If you do, you’re weak. You’ve got to be tough. Africa, as my husband says, it dries your tears.’

‘Hippos are wild – not pets’

There have been 72 hippo calves born at the Turgwe Hippo Trust since 1992. When questioned on her favourite, Karen goes for ‘Bob’.

‘He wanted to kill me initially,’ she laughs. ‘But by the end he was so chill I could call him and he would come within three feet of me and almost smile. It’s important for the hippo to have a name, to have a character. It’s a sentient being, not a number.

‘Steve is also one of my favourites, he became our “house hippo” for a few years. I would never tell someone to touch a wild animal, but Steve would let me stroke him. That’s the biggest honour I’ve had in my life, to have a wild hippo want me to pet his nose.’

It is estimated that hippo attacks kill 500 people each year in Africa. However, Karen claims humans entering their habitat simply causes the large animals to defend themselves.

‘Hippos are not dangerous if you respect them and treat them properly,’ she insists. 

‘They’re wild – not pets. They are herbivores, but if they feel threatened they are very strong and have very big teeth. If you take time to learn a wild animal’s behaviour and how to react to them respectfully, then you can have Utopia – you can experience something which is mindblowing.’

‘One human being can change the world’

Today, the biggest threat to the Turgwe Hippo Trust is drought. Climate change makes each month unpredictable and the sanctuary needs a constant supply of food for when the river runs dry and supplies for the hippo population dwindles. 

Karen, a vegetarian, says: ‘We couldn’t run the trust without the money to buy food and pay our rangers. Every donation, whether it’s $2 or $2,000, is saving an animal’s life in some form or another. One stone can start an avalanche on a mountain. One human being can change the world.’

People can adopt a hippo or buy Karen’s books about her experience as ‘the Hippo Lady of Zimbabwe.’ Her expertise has led her to be called on by BBC Wildlife Magazine whenever they need a hippo question answered and featured in TV shows by National Geographic. Actor Peter Egan is a patron and recently hosted a Q&A to mark the release of Karen’s most recent book; Hippos, a Mongoose and Me.

Future of the hippos

Karen’s days are long. She makes long drives for equipment, carries heavy loads of food across the land and is constantly on the search for donations to keep the charity afloat. But she wouldn’t change it for the world; seeing healthy hippos beneath the African sun is an image which will never get old.

‘I’m like Jane Goodall or David Attenborough, I don’t think I’ll ever retire,’ Karen says. ‘I’m a firm believer that age is just a number. I couldn’t see myself not doing what I do. 

‘I’m aware at some stage I will die and I don’t want all this to end with me. Finding the right person to continue caring for the hippos is important. This life is not easy so it has to be somebody who does it for the right reason, someone who wants to continue my legacy for the animals.

‘I have to believe that when I’m gone there will be a future for these hippos.’

To support the Turgwe Hippo Trust, click here www.savethehippos.info 

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