When I was learning English before, a teacher from South Africa once told me that the animal that hurts people the most in Africa is the hippopotamus, and I was puzzled at that time, why did the hippopotamus, which is cute and only vegetarian, become the animal that hurts people the most??? With these questions I have consulted a lot of information about hippos, so today we will talk about why hippos can become the most hurtful animal in Africa, and why fierce carnivores such as lions and crocodiles rarely dare to provoke hippos.
--- Hippopotamus: one of Africa's most hated animals.
In the mouth of my South African teacher, hippos are one of the most hated animals in Africa. Why? The African continent is very dangerous, living a lot of bloodthirsty beasts, such as lions, hyenas, but many people do not know, hippos are the deadliest "killers" in Africa, according to statistics, every 500 people are attacked by hippos and die, far more than elephants and other large animals caused by deaths, but hippos, elephants, rhinos and African buffaloes, which we usually think are cute, but every year in Africa will create a large number of human deaths in Africa, and the annual list of perpetrators, Hippos are never absent.
First, let's talk about the commonalities of these species: they are all vegetarian animals (hippos occasionally eat meat), and they are very large, have a particularly strong sense of territory, and look harmless to humans and animals but are actually fierce. Moreover, these species have one of the most easily hurtful biological characteristics, that is, they all have very good memory. Once watched a show in the animal world, a photographer followed the film crew to Africa to shoot, and the photographer accidentally provoked a buffalo during the filming, although he managed to escape at that time, but every time he passed the buffalo herd, those buffalo would chase him and run, until later when he was trampled by a buffalo from behind during filming. The film crew later learned that buffalo, hippos, rhinos and elephants were the African vengeance four.
Although these species do not attack humans at will, usually they attack humans because humans have strayed into their territory, and these species have a very strong sense of territory, so as long as you strayed into their territory, it is easy to become a target for them, and they will chase you until they kill you. And if we humans don't have guns, we definitely can't beat these species.
We can't beat the lion, leopard, crocodile on the African savannah? Why don't they dare to provoke hippos easily? Let's see little by little.
First, hippos are huge and not easy to hunt
Adult hippos are 4 meters long, males can weigh 1.6 tons-3.2 tons, females weigh about 0.6-2.3 tons, and the daily food intake accounts for about 1.%-1.5% of their own weight, then 3 tons of hippos, the daily food intake needs to reach 50 pounds.
Just now we have reported the data, it can be said that apart from elephants, there is no larger species than it that can face hippos. And the hippopotamus in the river is a hegemon, the bite force reaches 2000 kg, and the crocodile can be easily bitten until there is no backhand, and the crocodile's "death roll" has no effect.
The most powerful crocodile is the bay crocodile, which has a bite force similar to that of a large shark, weighs up to 1.8 tons and reaches a length of 7 meters. The main and strongest attack of the crocodile is "death roll", its bite force is very strong, when the crocodile bites the prey, it uses "death roll" to drag the prey into the water, and then drowns the prey before starting to eat.
This makes it extremely difficult for crocodiles to eat hippos, because crocodile teeth do not have the ability to cut, if the crocodile wants to kill prey, it can only use "death rolling" to strangle the prey, but when encountering a hippopotamus, you cannot use "death rolling", because the maximum angle of the crocodile's mouth can not swallow the round hippopotamus, so it can't get off the mouth at all. But if the hippopotamus opens its mouth to fight back, its mouth can open to almost 90 degrees or more, and it can bite the crocodile with one bite, and the crocodile can't run if it wants to run, plus the huge bite force can directly drag the crocodile to the shore, and then give the crocodile a "Tarzan top", at that time the crocodile's internal organs have to burst.
Second, the weight gap between the two is too large
The weight of the hippopotamus can reach up to 3.2 tons, while the average crocodile is usually only about 1,000 pounds, and it is impossible to shake the hippopotamus in terms of weight, so the crocodile in front of the hippopotamus, just like the boxing king Tyson beats the horse to protect the country, is not at a level at all. So on the contrary, adult hippos can easily knock out a crocodile, because hippos weigh several times more than crocodiles, and hippos have a bite force of up to 2200 kg, biting a crocodile can be said to be very easy.
Third, hippos will beat crocodiles in groups
Although crocodiles can be said to be the overlord of the water, hippos are generally social in the water, and crocodiles live in groups, and each hippopotamus family contains a male leader and a group of female hippos, the number of hippos is usually about 5~20, the largest hippopotamus group recorded so far is as high as 150, the number is very terrible. So if a crocodile sees so many hippos, don't say eat, I estimate that the guts are almost scared, and if the crocodile predators mistakenly enter the field of hippos, then the hippopotamus will take the crocodile as an intruder, and everyone will start beating the crocodile together, and the crocodile is difficult to face an adult hippopotamus, let alone group fighting.
Crocodiles do not dare to attack adult hippos, but they dare to attack juvenile hippos, because the strength of small hippos is relatively weak, but this is very risky, easy to be beaten, in general, crocodiles are afraid of hippos.
Because hippos are not only hot-tempered, but also very lethal, they have a very terrifying blood basin mouth, 40 cm teeth in their mouths, and the bite force is also extremely amazing, more than 800 kilograms, about twice as much as a lion, and hippos can also open their mouths to 90 degrees, and one blow can bite the antelope to death.
--- in the water hippos can be said to be an invincible existence, but what about on the shore?
A single hippopotamus on land is not a match for the lion herd, but if you return to the water, the lion is not a match for the hippopotamus at all, after all, the hippopotamus is a social animal in the water, more than 100 hippos live together, if the lion is close to the river, then they will become food for the hippopotamus.
The hippopotamus is fine in the water, but after going ashore, the hippopotamus is most afraid of encountering spotted hyenas and lions, and it is easy to understand if they are afraid of lions, why are they afraid of spotted hyenas? Because we all know that spotted hyenas are creatures, they will go out in groups when hunting, and their hunting method is also very cruel, that is, to take out the anus. Anal extraction is to attack the prey from the back of the prey, specifically biting the butt and genitals of the prey, and these two places are the weakest of all living things. It can be said that it is very cruel. And because of its huge size, the speed of running is not comparable to hyenas, and the hyenas rise up and attack, it can be said that they can not take care of the front, and it is easy to die and the siege of hyenas.
And lions are the same, lions are also social animals, if a small number of hippos or a hippopotamus meets the lions, the hippopotamus can only run, but the hippopotamus can not run the lion, and the lion will rise up and beat the hippopotamus. They can't run long at all, and their physical strength is very poor, the lions are constantly attacked in the legs and back of the body, and the hippos have no power to fight back.
--- powerful hippopotamus in Africa, it cannot escape the clutches of humans
The powerful African hippopotamus cannot escape the clutches of humans who cannot match it from any angle, and once there were many ordinary hippos on the earth, all over Europe and Africa, and during the Roman Empire, they could also be seen in the lower Nile River in records.
But there are only about 15,000 hippos left in the Nile basin, all of them in sub-Saharan Africa, some in eastern and southern Africa, and hippos have been declining in recent years. The sharp decline in hippos is mainly because their biggest natural enemy is humans, and human greed for game and hippopotamus teeth has led to the continuous occurrence of poaching, and coupled with the continuous destruction and pollution of rivers and wetland habitats by human life, it poses a serious threat to the survival of hippos.
Hippopotamus tooth bracelet
For example, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa, in their Virunga National Park, where 30,000 hippos once lived, the number of hippos once accounted for the largest number of African parks, but in just 20 years, the number of hippos there plummeted, and now only 1,500 remain. Since 1989, the ivory trade has been banned worldwide, but as a result, the hippopotamus tooth trade has begun to rise. As a result of the international ban on the ivory trade, "hippopotamus tooth" has become an alternative to ivory, and illegal poaching and trade are becoming more and more rampant. According to relevant data, trade in hippopotamus teeth increased by 15 tons between 1989 and 1990, while between 1991 and 1992, 27 tons of hippopotamus teeth were exported in Africa.
Hippopotamus tooth
In the beautiful African savannah, elephants, rhinos and hippos are heavyweight animals coveted by poachers, and many animals are declining due to human pursuit of profit. Once again, we are here to call on everyone to care for wildlife, whose lives are as precious as we are.