(Picture: Mark Dudley/Caters News)

If you’ve been clinging onto the hope that Harry Potter isn’t entirely fictional, you might want to head down to Uganda.

There, a real life Hippogriff is demanding visitors bow down to him.

Hippogriffs are, as we all know, half-eagle, half-horse and reportedly very calm, sensitive and proud creatures which demand respect (according to Hagrid).

And Sushi, the grey Shoebill Stalk, looks and acts just like the mythical creature – anyone who wants to pat him must first bow down to him before coming within touching distance.


If you don’t, Sushi apparently just flies off.

(Picture: Mark Dudley/Caters News)

Sushi lives at the Uganda Wildlife Education Centre in Entebbe and was captured on film by amateur photographer Mark Dudley.



Mark says that the Shoebill Stork is so rare there are fewer than 5,000 left in the world.

‘Just like Buckbeak, Shoebill Storks are very large and can cause a lot of damage if they wanted to so it’s important to observe “his” rules,’ he explained.

‘You have to bow your head when approaching – if you don’t then he will fly off to the other side of his enclosure,’ he added.

‘If you bow then he will respond and you can approach very closely and touch him.’

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Keepers and staff apparently gave Sushi his name as his behaviour reminded them of Japanese culture, where it is tradition to greet people by bowing.

‘I’m not really sure why it bows, whether it’s a behaviour it has picked up from man, whether this happens in the wild, or whether it has developed it individually,’ Mark says.

(Picture: Mark Dudley/Caters News)

‘But it was adorable and so formalised.’

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