Hippos

Hippos look like such benign creatures lounging in the river up to their eyeballs, but they are dangerous animals. They are very territorial and can move surprisingly fast for their size. Whenever our boat got close to them, they would watch us and then open their mouths to show their teeth if they wanted to warn us to keep our distance.

One afternoon a herd of sable antelopes came down to the river for a drink and headed straight for the spot where the hippos were lounging.

The hippos were not happy and they began to show their teeth and grunt.  One brave antelope kept moving toward the river and the alpha hippo went right up on shore.

The antelope decided to take a sip from a small watering hole instead of going to the river.

That hippo went back to the river and began to tussle with the other hippos. There was a lot of showing of teeth and bumping each other but it didn't look like serious fighting, more like "Who da man?  I da man! I showed that antelope who's boss!"

 

Sometimes hippos just lounge around looking mellow, like this pair. Now these are the kind of hippos I like! They were on the other side of the river from the previous photos, which is not Botswana but another country:  Namibia!