Hunter or Hunted? A tale of the Hippo and the Lion Pride

Every day during my two weeks in Kenya, we would go out into the bush and I would be treated to some wild new wonder. Yes, I had never been to Kenya…so of course it all was new.  But some of the experiences so bizarre they even amazed our guides who were native Kenyans!  Maybe the best example of this was the adventure with the Hippo and the Lions.

One morning, we headed out before sunrise to a spot by the river where we had seen a lion pride the night before.  The lions were still there all right…eight or nine females and their young just lounging around soaking up some sun.

We moved the Land Rover to a great spot on the opposite bank and started snapping shots.  We had been photographing for quite a while when I noticed a hippo surface in one of the deep pools in the river just below us…

He (she?) casually climbed out and struggled up the embankment…

That really got the attention of our lioness.  She got up and started trotting toward the hippo.  She maneuvered into its blind spot…

Now lions don’t usually prey on hippos…nothing really messes with hippos, they’re just too big.  Despite their comical appearance, they can be deadly.  Hippos reportedly kill more people in Africa than any other land animal…our guide Julius explained that are particularly dangerous when you get between them and their escape route to the water.

Maybe the hippo heard something, because suddenly it twisted its head and saw the lioness!

It froze for a second and then….it spit up what looked like 20 gallons of water.  I don’t know if this was a defensive action or if the lioness just scared it right out of her…

A split second later, the hippo charged the lioness.  Now, you wouldn’t think a 3,000 pound hippo could move fast…but you would also be wrong.  They can hit 20 mph…keep in mind that Usain Bolt can only hit 27 mph!

This is as close as the Hippo got…the lion’s speed quickly got her out of harm’s way.

When it saw that the lion was out of reach, the hippo stopped…

Perhaps it decided that discretion was the better part of valor… ’cause it spun around and headed back toward the river.  The lioness immediately jumped off in pursuit…

The hippo glanced over its shoulder…

and seemed to open its mouth to scream when it saw it was being chased again.  She put her head down, put on the afterburners and started really moving!

As they passed the pride, the other lionesses started paying attention.

By now the hippo had a full head of steam…with all that momentum, I doubt that anything could have stopped it…

In the shot above, you can see that the lioness had caught up to the hippo and was throwing on the brakes.  She must have been thinking “Why am I chasing this guy…what the heck would I do if I caught him anyway?!”

This was my last shot before the hippo passed behind the trees lining the river and headed down the bank…to safety.

Just like that, it was over.  From the time I first spotted the hippo in the river until she jumped back down the embankment less than 50 seconds had passed.   It’s incredible the drama you can experience in less than a minute.  Anyway, it made for an exciting morning…for the photographers as well as the hippo and the lion pride.  Like I said, something new and exciting every day!

Until my next post, take care,
Jeff

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