Hippos may seem like a mild-mannered and eccentric animal, but any intelligent person will tell you that they are as dangerous as lions and wolves, not only can they open their mouths at an angle of 180 degrees, but they can unleash more than 2,000 pounds of ferocious force with one bite. Curiously, hippos are a proven vegetarian to an animal with a fatal bite, with males dueling with their 30cm long canine and front teeth during the mating season and intimidating nearby big cats, as extreme hunger from predators threatens their safety.
Despite its clumsy size, the hippopotamus is the world's deadliest large land mammal, killing about 500 people a year in Africa. They can grow up to 3.3-5 meters and have a shoulder height of 1.6 meters. The average weight of females is about 1400 kg, while the weight of males is between 1600-4500 kg.
As we all know, the competition between hippos and crocodiles is very fierce. The infamous Nile giant Gustav reportedly feeds on hippos. However, Gustav is a rare specimen that is estimated to weigh more than a ton, and even so, it is likely that it was fought by ambush rather than confronting hippos head-on. In most cases, crocodiles avoid hippos because they instinctively know that if they get too close, the hippos will attack them. So if you see any documentaries about hippos and crocodiles, crocodiles either keep their distance or run away. This is for individual hippos, because the fact that hippos live in groups only makes them more dangerous. There have been rare cases of hippos walking into crocodile colonies where these reptiles have used their numerical superiority to kill animals much larger than them. But like I said, this is rare.
Rhinos have poor eyesight and are arguably the worst in the animal kingdom. If the hippopotamus is too far from the water, the rhinos may win. On land, rhinos have advantages over hippos in terms of speed, maneuverability and weight. The rhino can attack hippos, and while its horns aren't as hard as the hippopotamus's tusks, it's still hard enough to penetrate the hippopotamus's skin. After poking holes the size of a horn in the skin, the hippos will eventually bleed to death.
Kodiak brown bears weigh a staggering 680 kilograms and have a bite force of about 1,000 pounds. Kodiak Brown Bear, on the other hand, has enough weapons to successfully hunt down hippos. It has a slash capable of crushing bones, and 13 cm long claws pierce the hippopotamus's 5 cm thick skin. In terms of speed, brown bears have a higher speed and endurance of 56 km/h compared to hippos at 48 km/h. While this is not a clean kill, as the brown bear will most likely have to launch a long-running attack that destroys the hippopotamus's spine while avoiding its mouth, it's not within its reach. Considering that smaller grizzly bears can take away animals three times larger than they are, and polar bears may hunt bull sharks and walruses of comparable weight to hippos, I think a huge male brown bear can win a fight against a hippopotamus.
Hippos are not rivals to adult elephants because elephants are at least twice the size of hippos. They are also so tall that the hippopotamus' terrible jaws can't reach anything but bite their legs and noses, and it's wrong to try to attack any of them. If it is aimed at the elephant's leg, it may be stepped on; if it wants to bite the elephant's nose, it may be turned upside down. If an angry male elephant is willing, it can easily kill the poor hippopotamus. Of course, elephants also kill rhinos that are not much smaller than hippos. Elephants are the only animals that can walk directly into the hippopotamus herd without being attacked, as hippos know that even an elephant can kill a lot of hippos before driving them away, which even applies when hippos are in the water.
Like the Kodiak brown bear above, I know this pair will never happen, but in the battle between these two animals, killer whales will definitely win! Killer whales are the largest members of the dolphin family, with male killer whales reaching up to 9.7 meters in length and weighing up to 12 tons, far more than hippos weigh. Killer whales are reported to have a bite force of 19,000 pounds of force. Such fights can only take place in the water, and killer whales are obviously better swimmers, and there are no predators in all the seas they want to go. Hippos don't actually encounter killer whales, but if they do, they will end up resembling powerful walruses, which are probably the best comparison, which keep killer whales happy and healthy all the time. So killer whales are easy to kill hippos!
Relatively speaking, hippos are often killed by lions. Clever lions know how to attack hippos, they can avoid escaping into the water, and let their numbers prevail over their massive bodies. Of course, this is also uncommon. Hippos spend most of their time in the water, and lions dare not chase them, because the hippopotamus herd is much more numerous than the lion herd. If lions can't isolate hippos, they'll be bothered. And not every lion herd that attacks a hippopotamus has a clear plan for what they're going to do. In this case, the hunt usually fails. Therefore, it is not surprising that hippos kill lions, but this one is only suitable for the entire lion herd hunting. If the lion is alone, it generally does not dare to attack the hippopotamus because the size gap is too large. If lions don't want to hunt, they won't fight hippos either.
The above are 6 animals that can easily kill hippos in seconds, what do you think is the reason why the "King of the Hundred Beasts" tiger did not finally win the selection? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section.