Happy Hippos: Video
Published by Wildcaster 1 year, 11 months ago Tags: adventure, africa, animal kingdom, blogumentary, conservation, documentary, ecotraining, education, fight, fishing, flickr, giraffe, GLTP, gonarezhou, Great Limpopo Transfrontier Park, groups, hippo, malilangwe, mashable, narrowcasting, Open Content Alliance, pamushana, peace parks, photos, podcasting, polls, teach, wildcasting, wildlife, wildlife documentary, youtube, zimbabwe.I managed to find some old truck springs at camp and was able to make up another complete spring for my vehicle. So it was me back on the road soon after midday.
I received a report from the game scouts that a huge flock of Abdims Storks had spent most of yesterday on the Runde river at a waterhole. We had a similar concentration of them in Etosha National Park many years ago. I remember the birds would arrive at the pan around mid-morning and spend the rest of the day there. And they kept coming back to the same pan for about a week.
So I took my chances and headed right down to the deep south. But my luck was out. There was no sign of any birds. But I did find this bunch of hippos. They were really chilled, so I ended up spending the afternoon with them hoping they would either, fight (to the death of course), give birth or mate.
Of course none of these happened.
So I spent my afternoon lying on the river bank in the soft sand waiting for all this action.
It was so peaceful and relaxing. When the hippo grunted it sounded like a bunch of old men sitting at the bar, beer in hand, grunting at each others jokes.
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Absolutly beautiful photos! I love the last 2 you posted!!! Makes me think of warm summer nights, alas, than I look out my window and realize its below zero with the windchill!! I hate the cold!
LOL! I love the sounds of them “laughing”. You’re right. They do sound like old men in a bar laughing at jokes. Thanks for the audio!
Paula
I’m surprised to learn hippos kill more people than any other wild animal. I guess I would have thought snakes had that honor. Your videos and blogs are very educational.
For having such huge heads, hippos have such cute little round ears. I noticed one had a chunk out of his ear. A fight, I suppose.
They not only sound like old men, but lecherous old men enjoying a boys night out.
More on the Hippos!
Much maligned creatures but beautiful in their own right.
Keep them coming.
We were on a pontoon on Malilangwe dam one time, and the battery went flat after we had been fishing. Our guide could not restart, it was getting dark, and we were drifting over to the flatbanks where the Hipps and Crocs were.
S*** scared, but we got rescued eventually.
Nice things, but only at a safe distance!
yes I’ve been kayaking on the dam and suddenly they pop up next to me. They just lurk in the deep. had one feeding on the bank of the dam which suddenly saw me paddling past and took fright knowing it needed to be in the water to be safe. it charged straight for the water just where i was and the bow wave rocked my kayak. That just showed me how easily they would attack people when running scared to get to water.
A great sound recording to hear; this reminds me of lying on the bed in our tent after a long day on safari, and just listening to the hippo in the river outside our tent in Govenor’s Camp, Masai Mara. A great memory to listen to, thanks.