Two of Africa's largest animals interact in rare footage.
South Africa is home to some of the most massive beasts that currently walk the planet earth. Some of these creatures are the closest in size to dinosaurs that you'll find today. Case in point is the rhino and the hippo. These two animals are massive and can be dangerous to humans who wander too close.
While these animals inhabit many of the same areas, they don't often contact one another. After all, hippos spend much of their time in water while the rhinoceros is a land animal. Even the guides who take tourists all over the numerous parks and reserves rarely see these animals interact.
However, in this video from the Mala Mala Game Reserve, a hippo takes to antagonizing a large rhino as guides and tourists spotlight the animals. It's interesting to watch these animals react to one another in what can only be described as a once-in-a-lifetime encounter.
This encounter never escalated into a full-on fight, but that rhino nearly hooked that hippo in a very uncomfortable place with those big horns. Even the guides who witnessed this incident were puzzled by it. However, it seems likely that the two animals were doing just as the one guide commented: they were probably just playing. The video's description has a bit more information from the guide who shot the footage. He is identified only as Mike, but he was as surprised as anyone.
"At the time it was still a very dry season in the reserve and the animals were battling with what little grass there was available," the description reads. "The area around the airstrip was pretty barren and I think the hippo was more curious and lonely because at the time many of the hippo had already left this area due to the drought."
This was quite the encounter and we're glad they were able to catch it all on video and share it with the world. Stuff like this is why a trip to South Africa is high on our bucket list for someday!
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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