Moment Angry Hippo Attacks Boat in Harrowing Video Is Wild
When you were a kid, did you play the game Hungry Hungry Hippos? It was always a favorite with me and my siblings, but I don't think it would be very fun to see in person. Daily Mail shared a video on Monday, May 6th of a hippo attacking a boat, and it was terrifying.
Imagine being on a boat and having a 2,000-plus-pound hippo coming towards you with its huge mouth wide open. That's what this hippo did as it bit into the boat's motor; it was not messing around! Daily Mail described the hippo as 'hangry' and I think that's pretty accurate!
Wow! Not a boat I'd want to be on! Daily Mail commenters had a lot to say about the shocking video. @Starforcefighter pointed out, "Sound is more amplified under water, probably agitated the hippo." @Arizzy266 added, "He tried to eat the motor!" @Terry Mcgillicky wondered, "Why get so close to it?" and I thought the same thing that @KurtyKurt said, "Can we see what the prop looked like after?!"
Related: Cincinnati Zookeeper Explains How Hippos Giant Mouths Actually Work
More About the Angry Hippo Attack
It turns out that this hippo wasn't hangry, it was just angry. The Sun explained how the attacking hippo incident happened in an article published on May 6th. The incident was recorded from a tourist boat in the Chobe River in Namibia. One of the tourists on the boat, Jackie Boshoff said they were observing the hippos "when a male suddenly turned, and managed to out-pace the boat, before launching his attack." She was able to remain calm, as were the others on board, “Everyone on board the boat actually remained very calm, including me. Fortunately nobody panicked.” It's believed that the male was protecting one of the hippo calves that was in the group (also called a pod or a bloat).
Hippos don't actually swim, instead they walk along the bottom of the water. Don't let their massive size fool you; on land, hippos can run up to 30 miles per hour and they can move about 5 miles an hour in the water. Hippos are known to be highly aggressive and are slightly more even-tempered on land than when in water. It's always best to admire these enormous animals from a distance.
The tourist boat's captain has been taking tourists to the same location for 13 years and has never had this happen before. As they approached the hippos the captain even turned off the motor to reduce the noise. However, the aggressive male wasn't happy with them being there and charged. He bit at the motor several times and "obliterated" the boat's outer motor. He also "chomped off chunks plastic on the boat's body while making a dangerous sound." Fortunately, nobody was hurt...they were all very lucky!
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