A young hippo in the Kruger decided to test his bravery against a grumpy crocodile and an angry buffalo bull, the outcome is too cute!
Kruger National Park, South Africa – Rainer Mauthe (44), self-employed owner of “Zur Alten Mine” guest farm, witnessed a funny encounter between a young hippo who was testing his bravery against some “not so welcome” neighbourhood intruders.
Rainer told Latestsightings.com about the adorable encounter which they had the opportunity to witness while taking friends out on a game drive in the Kruger.
“We took Friends from Germany for a day into the Kruger. We entered through Phabeni Gate and slowly made our way down to Crocodile Bridge, where we stayed overnight just outside the gate.
It was a rather quiet day, but we still enjoyed our time in the Park.
Approaching Lower Sabie, we stopped for a quick coffee and then decided to park for a while at Sunset Dam. We thought there might be some action happening there because there were quite a lot of cars. As we were watching, many big [crocodiles] were lying in the sun on the bank.”
The bask of crocodiles were happily sunning themselves on the bank minding their own business when a brave young hippo came along. The hippo was testing his bravery and decided to take on one of the grumpy crocodiles. The crocodile wasn’t interested in being messed with so it took to the water and swam off.
“Suddenly, a cheeky young hippo came out of the water and started chasing the crocs around. It looked like he just wanted to play around a bit.”
The hippo wasn’t done playing and decided to try his luck with a Buffalo Bull who had wandered onto the nearby bank. The Buffalo wasn’t as blasè about the encounter and challenged the hippo’s advances, which sent the poor thing running for the water.
“It was just so funny to watch this youngster having some fun with the crocs. In the end, he decided to try his luck with a buffalo who came to drink at the dam. He seemed to approve of the buffalo, but his luck turned on him as the buffalo chased him back into the water. He soon decided to go back to mommy!
We’ve never seen a hippo getting so close to big crocodiles like that with no fear at all. It was a great sighting for us!”
Take a look at the brave little guy’s encounters below.