Glove puppet helps pygmy hippo eat

A pygmy hippo which started turning up his snout at food has been given a helping hand to start eating again. Chico worried keepers at his home in Heythrop Zoological Gardens when he began to refuse food.

But the little animal was lured back to his trough under the watchful eye of Gloria, a hand puppet based on the star character in DreamWorks children's film Madagascar.



Zoo keepers at the private zoo near Chipping Norton in Oxfordshire said they had been 'trying everything' to tempt the fussy eater back to his meals when they stumbled across the hippo glove puppet in a supermarket promotion.

Now keepers don the puppet to hand feed the diminutive hippo, a relative of the larger hippopotamus on whom Gloria is based, his favourite carrot treats.

With more photos.