Humanosity says….Considering that hippos are considered to be the most dangerous large animal in Africa surviving such a close encounter is miraculous and worth reading simply on that basis……
Surprisingly, hippos are considered to be the world’s deadliest large land animal. They kill around 500 people a year in Africa, that’s considerably more than the likes of lions, tigers, bears and elephants.
For example, in 2014, a hippo attacked a small, unsuspecting boat filled with Nigerian school children, killing twelve students and one teacher on board, an Australian news outlet reported. Conflicts between humans and hippos also occur when hippos wander onto land in search of food.
Despite their slightly comical appearance, they are in fact highly aggressive and the males extremely territorial. They are fast and agile in the water and surprisingly fleet of foot on land.
The following is an excerpt from a man who managed to survive a hippos attack.
The hippo who tried to kill me wasn’t a stranger – he and I had met before a number of times. I was 27 and owned a business taking clients down the Zambezi river near Victoria Falls. I’d been working this stretch of river for years, and the grouchy old two-ton bull had carried out the occasional half-hearted attack. I’d learned to avoid him. Hippos are territorial and I knew where he was most likely to be at any given time.
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