CAPE TOWN: Residents in South Africa’s city of Cape Town have been asked to keep a look-out for a renegade young hippopotamus which is popping up in gardens and roads after moving into a suburban lake.

City officials are hoping the two-year-old calf will return back to its pod after appearing in an unfenced reserve following the theft of part of the boundary fence in the neighboring water body where it lives.

“The night before last he was in peoples’ gardens, obviously there were lots of people out,” Julia Wood, manager of Biodiversity Management said. “And then last night somebody picked him up on one of the roads.”

The city will monitor the animal for two weeks but is considering capture or darting if he does not leave Zeekoevlei, which is in the densely populated Cape Flats area.

“The public is advised to be particularly cautious, as hippos are known to be extremely dangerous wild animals,” the city said in a statement, urging residents and users of the lake not to approach the animal or stop it.