A "Dead" Hippo - Inspire Wilderness

When exploring the bush, there are a few rules that you should follow if you want to avoid problems. Some are very basic and very obvious, but some are a little bit more difficult to understand.

This story is about a very basic rule “in doubt, never get out of the car”. Actually two very basic rules, “in doubt, never get out of the car” and “never approach a carcass if you are not sure it is predator-free”.

My beautiful Tracker seat.

We find ourselves back in the Karongwe camp, 2012. We left the camp in search of anything in the morning. Morning drives are always my favourite. Animals are still waking up, some predators are still on the hunt, anything can happen!

My nickname was “tracker” because I was always on the tracker seat. This way I could read the road. Searching for tracks or any other signs from the animals. On the tracker seat I always felt I was outside of the car, and I was, but I felt alone. Just me and my bush.

It was Winter time in Africa, so unlike our Winters in Europe, Africa’s Winter is dry. Normally rains during their summer. So in Winter all animals are closer to the water, and that’s where you go to find the animals. You search rivers, dams, anything that has water.

So we drove for around 1 hour, hour and a half, until we decided to go take a short break at a dam. The closest was Croc Dam. As you can imagine the name already says why it is called that. There was a resident croc patrolling these waters. Waiting for some careless prey to risk drinking long enough.

Beautiful Nile crocodile (Crocodylus niloticus). Photo taken in Kruger.

As we are arriving at the dam we notice a big body near the water.

– Hippo! – I said.

– A dead one – “John” corrected me.

We stopped the car close to the carcass, around 5 meters away. “John” looked over the door, the body was to the left of the car, to have a better look.

– Amazing! Not a single bite on the body! No predator has found it yet. Very cool! We are going to check it.- “John” said while starting to get out of the car.

The carcass of the hippo.

He stops for a second and continues walking while saying:

– Please stay in the car before I say it is ok to come out. And also keep an eye out for lions, hyenas, leopards, etc… – while walking close to the body.

He starts walking around the body, like a detective trying to figure out how this hippo died. He starts saying:

– This is a young male hippo. Very healthy and doesn’t look beaten up. Very strange how he died… – “John” ‘s face was of a confused person. This dead animal doesn’t show any signs of the cause of its death.

He decides to back a little bit and he grabs a rock. Not a small rock, a big one, he had to grab it with two hands. While walking to the body he starts saying:

– Rule of getting close to a carcass, always check if there are any predators around – he said while throwing the rock.

The rock hits the hippo right on the belly. Then the hippo heads raise with a loud snort!

Hippo out of the water!

“John” jumped 2 meters high! He started to run to the car while the hippo raised from the dead! The hippo was very confused, giving time to “John” to jump to the driver’s seat! “John” put first gear and blasted the accelerator to escape the angry hippo!
– SH&T! – “John” screamed while driving away – He wasn’t dead!

The hippo chased us for around 500 meters until giving up and sprinting back to the dam. He must have gone back to the water. After driving far far away, we stopped this time on a tall rock… just in case.

“John” was pale, but pale. I turn to him and asked:

-Are you alright?

-Nope… I just woke up a hippo! I even touched the hippo! – “John” said while releasing a very nervous giggle.

-I guess it is a good thing you throw that rock. Imagine what would have happened if he would have woken up surrounded by people! – I said.

And this is why you never approach a carcass. That is my rule! I don’t care if there are no predators around, maybe it is alive, maybe there is a predator that I can’t see. There are more reasons to not approach it, than to approach one.

In certain or in doubt, stay in the car!