The NBC showed footage of 60 mostly adult trapped hippos huddled closely together, trying desperately to move around in thick mud in the channel near Kapani, some 80 kilometers south-east of the Caprivi regional capital of Katima Mulilo.

After the eastern Caprivi was hit by severe floods of the Zambezi River in May this year, the southern parts where the Chobe River forms the natural border to Botswana had very little rain, threatening buffalos, crocodiles and elephants.

The NBC quoted a local resident, Ignatius Kamuna, as saying the community was worried about losing the wild animals, as they were important for tourism and that hippos were keeping the natural water channels free from vegetation overgrowth.

"Last month already we informed the regional nature conservation offices about the plight of these hippos", Kamuna said.

According to the television report, deputy permanent secretary in the ministry of environment and tourism, Ndeudapo Amagulu, said the ministry would send a special team of senior officials to the Kapani area for an aerial survey in order to assess how the animals could be rescued.

TERRA.WIRE