A Pair of Giant Hippos Blaze Directly Through a Pride of Lions

While lions are often the stars of the African savanna, hippos are also impressive heavyweight contenders. When these two animals come across each other, things can get pretty intense. However, in this YouTube video, the resulting encounter is much more comedic than you might expect!

Midnight Meals

Lions and hippos don’t regularly encounter one another, in part because hippos are usually only on land at night. Despite their enormous size and powerful bodies, hippos are actually herbivores that only eat plants. They mainly graze on land, consuming various types of grasses and dry vegetation.

During the day, hippos spend their time relaxing in the water. At night, they come onto land to graze for food. These grazing sessions can last for five to six hours, and a single hippo can eat 55 to 88 pounds of food during that time!

Hippos use their large back teeth to grind up the plants they eat. This mashed-up food then travels through the multiple compartments of their stomachs. Because the grasses and dry plants they eat aren’t packed with nutrients, hippos have very long intestines and digest their food slowly, allowing their bodies to absorb as many nutrients as possible.

Do Lions Usually Attack Hippos?

Hippos and lions both live in sub-Saharan Africa, but they tend to stay in different areas. Hippos are aquatic animals and usually live in rivers and estuaries, while lions live in various land habitats like deserts, grasslands, and woodlands. Lions are apex predators, meaning they are at the top of the food chain and help keep the populations of other animals balanced. They typically hunt animals like zebras, antelopes, and wildebeest.

In general, hippos and lions avoid each other. Hippos are extremely protective of their territories and will zealously chase away anything that comes too close. Going head-to-head with a hippo would be a challenge for even the strongest lion. However, if food is scarce, a group of lions might consider hunting a young or sick hippo as a last resort. Even with an entire lion pride, a healthy adult hippo would be far too difficult to attack.

When Hippos Miss Their Curfew

Hippos leave the water at night to graze, sometimes traveling up to 5 miles to find food. When morning comes, they return to the water to stay cool and protect their sensitive skin. The two hippos in this YouTube video head back to the water after a night of grazing and decide to take a shortcut through a group of lions, knowing that the big cats likely wouldn’t bother them. As expected, the lions don’t even get up as the hippos pass by, though they do seem a bit bewildered by the sudden commotion.

As the video shows, hippos can run surprisingly fast, reaching speeds of 19 to 28 miles per hour. Lions, on the other hand, can sprint up to 50 miles per hour, so a hippo couldn’t really outrun a lion. Fortunately, hippos are so formidable and tough that lions usually leave them alone.