Sissi is a fighter.

This also applied to the Austrian empress of the same name, but she is not meant.

Sissi is a wild boar who fought dying with all her might.

Sissi was hand raised by her lifesaver and foster mother Marion Ebel.

The wildlife biologist is familiar with the rearing of young animals.

She has twice fed a trio of white wolves in the Alte Fasanerie wildlife park in Hanau-Klein-Auheim for many tedious weeks with a milk bottle.

Luise Glaser-Lotz

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung for the Main-Kinzig district.

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Ebel had neither expected nor wanted that she would have a bottle baby again, and that from a completely different animal species.

But Sissi was born in the wildlife park on March 19, along with seven other newborns.

Two of the boys were too small to be adopted by their mother.

The two had no chance of reaching the teats and receiving the vital milk.

Nature is cruel to those who have no chance of survival.

One of the tiny creatures was mauled to death and eaten by conspecifics.

The second dared to flee and trudged towards the electric fence.

When it was underneath, it was discovered by visitors who called the wildlife park maintenance department.

Ebel brought the little animal back to the edge of the enclosure, but about two hours later, when the wildlife biologist checked on the status of things, the pig was back under the electric fence and couldn't get any further.

Now it was clear to her that there was no point in putting the young wild boar back again.

Even if it had found its way to the throwing cauldron, it would have died.

His condition was already critical.

"If the little one has to die, then it shouldn't do it here alone, but at my home in a pleasant atmosphere," said Ebel.

She put the little one in the car and – just to be on the safe side – took a bottle of fresh milk from the wildlife park kiosk with her.

Sissi didn't come to die

At the time, Ebel did not believe that she would need the milk.

Her surprise was all the greater when the little pig emptied the bottle without hesitation.

Now it was pretty clear that Ebel hadn't come to die, but to stay for a while.

The brave animal was named Sissi after the Austrian Empress and Hungarian Queen.

Sissi's motherfucker has Hungarian blood, explains Ebel.

In addition, the namesake was also a fighter.

In the next few days, Sissi drank as much as she could.

In the first few days, a bottle had to be produced every hour.

That's why Ebel took the piglet to the wildlife park when she went to work.

The effort was actually too much for her, but of course she had grown fond of the animal in the meantime.

It didn't leave her side.

Over time, the intervals between milking could be increased, and other feed was added.

Even when Sissi had long since stopped needing a milk bottle, she would not rest until she got one.

It got a bit difficult when Ebel banished the pig from her bedroom, because there was simply no peace with him.

In addition, the pig grew rapidly.

After about three months, Sissi had grown so big that she easily knocked over larger pieces of furniture and otherwise caused chaos in the apartment.

This also displeased Ebel's permanent roommate, Collie Bailey.

Although he endured a lot, he mostly eyed Sissi suspiciously, and if she wanted to take his bowl, he would show her his teeth.

Sissi loves dog food, but didn't dare snack from Bailey's bowl when he was around.

But the foster mother often put dry dog ​​food in Sissi's own bowl,

Small film sequences document Sissi's development on YouTube.

You can see, among other things, how the animal greedily devours its food or how it dashes across the meadow at Ebel's house like a racing pig.

The little pig couldn't get lost.

"When I waved the milk bottle, Sissi was always there in no time," Ebel remembers.

That good time is now over.

Sissi has finally become too big and too strong to stay in the apartment.

She would be too dangerous for Bailey, says Ebel.

She could have thrown the dog around with ease.

Before Pentecost, Sissi was housed in her own enclosure in the wildlife park.

For this, Ebel divided off a piece of the white wolves' area, so that Sissi got her own pond.

There the wild boar is alone for the time being.

Soon, however, two more pigs, probably two females, will keep him company.

It will take a while because the two have yet to reach a suitable size.

When the time comes, Sissi and her new roommates are sprayed with hairspray so that everyone smells the same.

Otherwise a merger would not be possible.

Ebel visits her foster pig as often as possible.

During Pentecost she was with him several times a day.

When Ebel says goodbye, Sissi whines a little, but then goes her own way, as Ebel reports.

"Sissi is an animal that needs its gang," says the specialist.

If everything goes well with the roommates, the three will move into the small wildlife park in Bad Soden-Salmünster.

Ebel also wants to visit her protégé there regularly because she lives nearby.