Recent news reports Hippos killing tourists

[tilfo]

We all know this but here is a tourists killed again. Don’t blame the hippo, he is just doing what he does...


NAIROBI, Kenya -- A Chinese tourist was attacked and killed by a hippo while taking pictures on the edge of Lake Naivasha in Kenya's Rift Valley, just hours after a local fisherman was mauled to death in the same area, authorities said Sunday.

The deaths brought to six the number people who have been killed by hippos around Lake Naivasha so far this year.

Wildlife service spokesman Paul Udoto said the circumstances are not clear in which the two Chinese were attacked.

He said hippos and lone buffalos pose the greatest danger to humans and there have been many attacks in which civilians and even rangers have lost their lives.

 

[Sarcodian]

Yup, growing up around these parts, those two animals are the ones you respect / keep your distance from. Although personally have never had the opportunity to get anywhere near a hippo, I have had to take a few detours around buffaloes. My dad showed me a picture of a self-drive tourist's car that had honked at a buffalo. And cars were stronger back in those days. I guess Rhino's as well, but those are impossible to get close to these days anyway.

 

[DanW]

When I was in South Africa a few years ago, they warned us and warned us about hippos. We were there 10 days and read of one death near the Limpopo River. They described most attacks, though, as happening at night. Typically, they said some guy would go out to take a whiz in the dark, and there would be a big hippo that he didn't see. They'd find him bitten in half the next morning. They didn't have to say much about cape buffalo. They are some scary looking bastages. If your instinct doesn't tell you to give them a wide path, then you are a potential candidate for a Darwin Award.