Of Small Boats and Leaf Blowers

I used to think hippos got a bad rap as being one of the world’s most dangerous animals. They seemed like jovial not-thin characters - chuckling, wallowing, swimming and basking in the sun. However, I have had to radically readjust my opinion of late due to two encounters with aggressive males…

Researching hippo behaviour provides some insight. Territorial bulls establish territories in water but not land, and these may range from 250 to 500 m (270 to 550 yd) in dams or lakes, and 50 to 100 m (55 to 109 yd) in rivers. The bull has breeding access to all the cows in his territory. Younger bachelors are allowed to stay as long as they defer to him. A younger male may challenge the old bull for control of the territory.

Within the pods, the hippos tend to segregate by sex and status. Bachelor males lounge near other bachelors, females with other females, and the territorial male is on his own.

It is mainly the territorial bulls and challenging bachelors that are aggressive and unpredictable in nature. Agitated bulls have frequently been reported charging and attacking small boats which can easily be capsized by hippos and it is then when humans are in grave danger. In fairness I suppose a small boat with a high-pitched whining engine buzzing around your space when you’re in a bad mood from fighting with another bull, is akin to a neighbour using a leaf blower, in the wind, on a Sunday morning, after a late Saturday night. So it is entirely understandable. (But fear not as Singita Pamushana has large, stable, quiet boats that we use for our fishing and sundowner trips, and the hippos pay little attention to these.)

Some other interesting hippo facts include that the mean adult weight is around 1 480 kg (3 260 lb) for bulls and 1 365 kg (3 009 lb) for cows, and it seems that male hippos continue growing throughout their lives, while females reach maximum weight at around age 25. Also, although they are chubby-looking, hippos have little fat. "Yawning" serves as a threat display. Their lower canines are sharpened through contact with the smaller upper canines. The canines and incisors are used mainly for combat instead of feeding. Hippos are not particularly good swimmers, nor can they float. In deep water they move by bouncing off the bottom. Hippos move on land by trotting. They can reach an airborne stage when all limbs are off the ground when trotting fast enough. A “flying” hippo is something I’d prefer not to see!