A hippo which began to refuse food has been given a helping hand to regain his appetite.

Keepers at the Heythrop Zoological Gardens became concerned when Chico, a pygmy hippo, stopped eating.

But Gloria, a glove puppet hippo based on one of the characters from DreamWorks children’s film Madagascar, was quick to lend a hand.

Despite trying everything to coax the small hippo back to the trough, zoo keepers at the park near Chipping Norton said the idea only came to them when they saw Gloria in a supermarket promotion.

Now zoo keepers pop on the puppet character, based on a similar breed of hippo to the picky eater, to hand feed Chico his favourite treat of carrots.