Who is solly the hippo

Ferreira said a game capture team had been waiting since Thursday for a veterinarian to show up to tranquilize Solly and oversee the operation to hoist him out with a crane. By early Friday, the hippo was showing signs of stress and was no longer able to stand in the pool, which had been drained of most of its water in preparation for the rescue. Lying in the murky, feces-strewn water, he emerged occasionally for air, sighing anxiously as he gazed at journalists gathering around the pool.

More from GlobalPost: Hippo gets stuck in a resort swimming pool. The plan was to sedate the hippo and remove him from the swimming pool with a crane. The pool had to be drained so the hippo wouldn't drown while tranquilized, but Solly became stressed during the process. Ferreira added that hippos were sensitive creatures and Solly was no different and that his stress level had probably been rising. We believe that Africa is poorly represented, and badly under-estimated.

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It's devastating," said Ruby Ferreira, manager of the game preserve lodge where the hippopotamus had been stuck in the swimming pool since Tuesday. The 4-year-old hippo had been chased from his herd by dominant males when he wandered into the Monate Conservation Lodge and plopped into its 8-foot-deep pool.

Although he was able to swim freely, he couldn't get out because the pool has no steps. Lodge workers dubbed him Solly, and the hippo's plight captivated South Africans, with live TV broadcasts from the pool and newspaper headlines like "It's all systems go for the rescue of Solly the hippo.

Then on Friday morning, the TV news carried a scrolling headline announcing the animal's death. Solly's demise left several of those involved pointing fingers of blame. Ferreira said a game capture team had been waiting since Thursday for a veterinarian to show up to tranquilize Solly and oversee the operation to hoist him out with a crane.