Tanzania 16 - Serengeti National Park - Hippos & Crocs

21-25 December 2014

Hippos may be among the most ridiculous, humorous, ugly, and disgusting animals on earth. They spend their days in large groups wallowing in rivers to protect their skin from the sun and to keep cool. In the evening they leave the water and spend the night eating all sorts of vegetation, then return to the water before the sun gets too strong. My wildlife guide says that they may travel 8 to 10 km in a night. On one of our excursions, we actually saw a hippo running -- it's difficult to believe that an animal of this mass and stature could move fast! Follow along:

Humorous. Ugly?

Humorous. Ugly? This young hippo exudes a certain smugness. The oxpeckers on its back are enjoying the ride. Note how even this young hippo has a lot of scars on its hide.

Humorous. Hippos and oxpeckers.

Humorous. More red-billed oxpeckers. The hippo does seem to be enjoying their company.

Disgusting. Those brown splashes are hippo poop being whipped up by the hippo's tail as the hippo defecates. This doesn't seem to bother the hippos, but you couldn't get me to put even a toe in this river!

Disgusting and humorous. The hippo standing at the left has just left a pile of poop. All the other hippos turned around and faced him(?) as if to disapprove.

And watching over the hippo pool:

Three nice-sized Nile crocodiles.

It seems many, if not most, hippo pools also hold crocodiles. This one at another pool gave us a nice view of his teeth.