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• Butte, Montana, residents -- no strangers to big animals -- got a surprise when they spotted an elephant strolling down Harrison Avenue, NBC Montana reported.
"Pretty exciting," said Josh Hannifin, co-manager of the Civic Center Town Pump. "Man, they move fast when they just walk."
The Jordan World Circus was in town, and surveillance cameras caught Viola escaping from her pen after being startled by a car backfiring during her bath time.
Handlers were able to catch Viola with no trouble after about 20 minutes. [NBC Montana, 4/16/2024]
• Suburban residents in Cape Town, South Africa, had a close encounter with a hippopotamus, Independent Online reported.
The hippo broke through a fence at the Rondevlei Nature Reserve after getting into a scuffle with a dominant male there.
Resident Ashraff Schwartz said that when police cornered the animal, it ran into his yard.
"My 74-year-old mom watched ... as the hippo came straight for our door. It then turned around and ran up the road, but before then, it broke my wall as it jumped over it."
While no one was hurt in the incident, hippos "are responsible for more human fatalities in Africa than any other large animal," the Cape of Good Hope SPCA Wildlife Department noted. [Independent Online, 4/15/2024]