>"Yes I know Hippos; but they don't eat you, at least not much." --- >A few years ago, CBC radio interviewed a fellow who, with his girlfriend, paddled down the Zambesi River in a canoe. At one point in the trip, their canoe was bitten in half by a hippo! The very most incidents with Hippos occur by misunderstanding the natural behave of Hippos. First, Hippos are vegetarians! They don4t like or even could eat humans or their boats. Hippos, especially the bulls, got a distinct territorial behave. Boats going through their territtory are seen as an enemy, not as guests nor food. People paddling Hippo rivers should take care to avoid a nearer approach to Hippos and avoid their "potentially best places". Stay as far away as possible and sometimes it might be better to wait or portage the boat. Watch the water surface intensivly! Other big problems are, Hippos are night acvtive animals, don4t camp near their walkways. And by daylight, one often can4t see them because they stay under water, behave like Crocos. In some way, Hiippos are the river equivalent to Elephants or Rhinos. Nothing for: "Oh how nice, lets take a photo with them", thats provoces all the often bloody accidents with wildlife animals we could read in the yellow press. *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Mon Nov 03 2003 - 12:57:29 PST
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