Tag Archives: hippopotamus

I Love Hippos and I Wasn’t Disappointed

When going on a safari, there are animals that will be the ones many people will want to see most.  Lions, elephants, maybe rhinos will be top of the list.  I am not saying I didn’t want to see those because I clearly did but I have a fascination with hippos and seeing them was very high on the list of things I wanted.  Thankfully, we had plentiful opportunities to see them in various locations.

I knew that they were one of the more dangerous creatures, but we never got in any situation where they were a direct worry to us.  They tend to come out at night and feed before retreating to the water in the morning to stay cool and away from any predators.  Therefore, many of our sightings were when they were in rivers.  However, this wasn’t always the case.  We would see them wandering on land, heading through marshy ground and even asleep on the land.  I should note that one hippo we saw asleep on the land was showing signs of attack with wounds across its body so this may have been out of character.

We came upon one river that had loads of hippos in it.  We watched then for a while and then, as some of the other trucks pulled out, our guide moved us up into the dead end where they had come from.  This brought us in to sight of another big group of hippos way closer in.  It was amazing to see so many of them together.

What was the shot I wanted?  It had to be the mouth.  Hippos yawn and show off their large mouth and the huge teeth.  I so wanted to get that shot.  One hippo was in the water looking straight at me and I was just willing it to yawn but it didn’t oblige.  However, I did get some more distant shots when the full yawn was happening so that was really great.  They are such excellent creatures and, considering that they are vegetarians, ones that need to be treated with great caution.  What a treat.

Hippo Excursion Out of the Water

As goes large African animals, one of my favorites is the hippopotamus.  I’m not sure exactly what it is about them that appeals to me so much but I find them fascinating.  They can often be a bit disappointing at a zoo since they will spend long periods of time doing very little.  However, we have had some good luck over the years.  The one at Brookfield Zoo in Chicago once gave us an interesting moment and San Diego Zoo had a baby hippo swimming around during a visit there.

There are two hippos in Woodland Park Zoo and, when we arrived, they were both almost totally submerged in their pond taking it easy.  This does not make for much photo action.  Fortunately, a little patience paid off and one of them surfaced and proceeded (slowly) to exit the pond.  It wandered around for a short while before returning to the water and taking up its previous position.

This disturbance caused the other hippo to wake up for a while.  It didn’t exit the water but it did get its head above the surface and then it yawned a few times.  Hippos have amazing mouths and a yawn makes them look so dramatic.  I was absolutely delighted.  A couple of yawns and then it was back to submerged and napping.  I know they can be incredibly dangerous but they are still one of my favorite creatures.

Hippos are Sociopaths

A pair of hippos was hanging out in the water of their enclosure in Woodland Park Zoo.  One was facing away from us and was submerged for most of the time.  The other was facing us and was staring in our direction.  The shot I want of a hippo is the large yawn showing off the scary array of teeth that backs up their reputation as one of the most dangerous animals to man.  This guy wasn’t obliging.  They say that humans have a natural reaction to seeing a yawn from someone of yawning themselves.  The people that don’t do this have a higher probability of being sociopaths.  I thought I would try it with the hippo.  Either it knew I was faking it or hippos are sociopaths.  I wonder which it is.

Baby Hippo

AU0E4915.jpgPlenty of wildlife shots make their way on to this blog. However, the ones that get the most responses are those that involve baby animals. The cuteness factor usually does the trick. Today we shall combine a creature that is not usually known for being cute (although I do find them fascinating) with the baby element to see what results. Is a baby hippo cute?

AU0E4913.jpgIf the responses of the visitors to San Diego Zoo are anything to go by, definitely. This baby was really very young. It was in the enclosure with its mum and the mother was teaching it to swim. They were hanging out in the water under some foliage to make the most of the shade. Periodically, they would take a swim with her pushing the baby ahead of her under water. If it popped up to the surface, she would push it back under to get it used to being under for long periods of time.

AU0E4916.jpgA couple of laps of the pool and then back under the foliage to take a break before repeating the process. Getting shots was not easy. First, mum was pretty protective and blocked the view of the baby a lot. It would pop up occasionally. Of course, shooting through thick glass doesn’t help. Once they were swimming there were better chances. However, the tank glass is thick and the distortion at angles is significant. Also, there were a ton of people also trying to get a view.

AU0E4899.jpgDespite all of this, we did get a chance to see the baby swimming around. It really was a very cute looking thing. The pictures will not be worthy of anything beyond the blog but they are a nice snapshot of the early days of a creature that will soon be a lot bigger. By the time this posts, I imagine it will have grown substantially.

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