HUNGRY, HUNGRY HIPPOS

[Martin Hash]

Gwynne Petting Hippo, Cameroon.jpg

Somebody forgot to tell the people living along the Congo River in Cameroon that wild hippos are extremely dangerous. On nothing more than a rumor, we made arrangements to meet some locals on the riverbank and find out what they had to show us. It looked to be a man and his extended family: perhaps a brother or two, and their children. Following them, we made our way to the water where the man stripped down to his flowered briefs and waded into the river. Reportedly hippos account for most of the wild animal-caused deaths in Africa – by far – and this man was literally standing in the shallow middle of the river calling out and gesturing for the hippos to come to him… And they did. The man then motioned with his arm for a hippo to open its mouth so that he could throw cornmeal into the gapping maw.

This was astounding enough but then his friends hustled us into small, hand-hewn canoes, and took us to where the man was standing. We were urged to get into the water up to our knees and wade over to where the action was. One-at-a-time we patted the hippo on the snout - we were touching wild hippos on the head! More stunning still, the hippo was a mature cow with a calf! Of course, we got pictures.

Apparently, after a minute or so of this, the pod’s bull hippo had had enough and he began vocalizing in a deep, warbling, threatening way. Our guide quickly hustled us in the opposite direction but we where still within easy reach of the territorial male. Another man distracted the bull as we got back into the canoes and headed for safety. One of the fragile boats sunk on the way. The children held our shoes out to us as we arrived at the bank, and looking out to the river we could see the hippos exiting on the opposite shore to go to their nightly feeding several miles away.

Cost to risk your life petting wild hippos: about seven dollars.