Quick Take
- Hippos don't actually swim, and the way they really move through water makes a charging hippo even more alarming than it looks. See how hippos move →
- The '500 hippo deaths per year' statistic you've probably heard is more complicated than it sounds. Explore the death toll →
- There's a specific reason a boat can trigger a hippo charge, and most tourists on river tours don't realize what it is until it's too late. Watch the charge unfold →
- Getting closer for a better shot might seem worth the risk, but understanding what a several-thousand-pound hippo can actually do changes that calculation fast. See what hippos can do →
You know that moment in a horror movie when the music starts building and you immediately know something unpleasant is about to happen? Maybe it is a shark, an alien, or whatever other nightmare the director has been saving for the jump scare.
The people aboard the boat in the video get the wildlife version of that feeling. For a few seconds, the water looks relatively calm. Then a massive hippo suddenly surges toward the surface near the boat, and things get tense in a hurry. Watch the encounter above.
Hippo Suddenly Charges Toward a Tourist Boat
The short video clip at the top of this post shows a group traveling by boat when a hippopotamus appears nearby and rapidly closes the distance. It is the sort of encounter that looks incredible on video and considerably less fun when you are sitting a few feet above the water.
Exactly why this particular hippo approached the boat cannot be determined from the footage alone. What we do know is that common hippos spend much of the day in rivers, lakes, and other waterways, and adult males can defend aquatic territories. Hippos can also become aggressive when they feel threatened or when people get too close.
Why Getting Too Close to a Hippo Can Go Bad Fast
Boat tours can provide incredible views of wildlife, but there is an obvious catch: the water is not just a viewing platform for tourists. It is the animals’ habitat. Hippos spend much of the daytime resting in or around water before leaving to graze, typically after dark.
That matters because hippos can be highly territorial in the water. According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare, hippos are known to defend their territories and can react aggressively when humans enter their space, including people traveling by boat.
In the video, the hippo powers through the water toward the moving boat and briefly rises above the surface. Hippos do not swim in quite the same way many other mammals do. They generally move along the bottom and push themselves through the water, which makes their speed and power look even more impressive when one suddenly comes toward you.
Fortunately, the boat continues moving and the encounter does not appear to end in an attack. That is a much better outcome than finding out firsthand what a several-thousand-pound hippo can do at close range.
Can Hippos Kill People?
Two huge hippos fighting with each other in the pond, Masai Mara
©iStock.com/Wirestock
Absolutely. The common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) is an enormously powerful animal equipped with large canine teeth and formidable jaws. Adult males commonly weigh several thousand pounds, and exceptionally large individuals have approached 10,000 pounds.
Hippo attacks on people are well documented and can be fatal, particularly where people and hippos share rivers and lakes. Researchers studying human-wildlife conflict have found that hippo attacks can have a high fatality rate compared with encounters involving many other large mammals.
You will often see claims that hippos kill around 500 people in Africa each year. Discover Wildlife is among the outlets that cite that estimate. The problem is that there is no comprehensive continent-wide reporting system for hippo attacks, and researchers have noted that the true number of deaths is uncertain. So the exact annual toll should be treated as an estimate rather than a hard statistic.
The larger point does not need much exaggeration anyway. Hippos are huge, fast, territorial around water, and capable of seriously injuring or killing a person. Admire them from a safe distance and let an experienced guide decide what counts as “close enough.” This is one animal where getting a better video is probably not worth testing the boundaries.
