Hippos – no horsing around!
After enjoying a short hiatus over the past few months, our Dave on Kruger blog is back. We’re on the cusp of the month of June and the welcome cool of winter is on our doorstep. The change in weather brings with it a reprieve from the summer highs and our little town of Phalaborwa, perched happily on the watershed of the Letaba and Olifants Rivers, can look forward to a period of calm, cool evenings and warm sunny days.
Wildlife in the Kruger National Park have also launched their preparations for the season. Breeding male impala have begun their rut (see Impala – Dark horses of the Kruger in a previous blog), buffalo herds have started to gather in search of limited water supply, and the migratory birds have long flown the Kruger coop. Winter can be a stressful time for game in the wild. I recall a few winters ago the Phalaborwa region of the Kruger experienced unseasonal rainfall followed swiftly by an intense cold front. Temperatures plummeted and conditions in the bush were simply insufferable. The impala were hardest hit by this thermal shock wave killing a great number. Another animal in the Kruger that is susceptible to drastic temperature extremes is the hippopotamus, although his intolerance levels lean more to the side of heat. In saying that, winter can be a trying time too for the hippo, especially in drier seasons when watery refuges are hard to come by and grazing grass a luxury.
Rivers in the Kruger, and indeed Africa, are synonymous with the hippopotamus. Deriving its name from ancient Greek meaning ‘river horse’, cows weigh in at 1400kg and bulls top the scale at anything between 2000 and 3000kg. Their mere presence in a water system is a sight to behold. Hippo live in tight-knit pods – essentially a harem – containing a single, dominant bull with his mating females and their offspring. These groups typically number between seven and fifteen individuals but one may see greater aggregations in larger bodies of water. The males are highly territorial and they will aggressively defend a stretch of water against rival bulls. Territory boundaries are marked with dung scattered on bushes and tree boles along the water’s edge using a short, flattened, paddle-like tail.
Hippo are reliant on water. Indeed, they have evolved to be completely dependent on it in one way or another. The skin of a hippo, for instance, is extremely sensitive to dehydration and as such, will spend the hottest part of the day submerged. Water is also their safety blanket and a hippo will rush for it when threatened, up-ending everything in its path like a bull in a china shop (sorry – I couldn’t resist that one!). Many unlucky herds-people in rural Africa have met their deaths by being in the path of such a charge. To this end, hippo remain responsible for the most human deaths in Africa caused by a wild mammal. (Short sidebar here – mosquitoes are far and away Africa’s biggest natural killer of humans. Second place, according to official statistics, goes to the hippo. Although, as gruesome as it may be, some say that the crocodile is responsible for more deaths than the hippo but there often isn’t any proof of a death on offer, only a sad report of a missing body that never turns up.)
On a lighter note, remember that winter is the best time to visit the bush; cover is sparse and game viewing consequently better, the ambient temperatures are wonderfully agreeable and, not forgetting the reds, oranges and browns of the ever-changing mopane veld, winter in the bushveld is the place to be. Hoping to see you at Bushveld Terrace Hotel on Kruger soon.
