Watch This Hippo Charge Tourist Car

https://youtu.be/s5b45PEKb2o

The hippopotamus is arguably considered to be Africa’s most dangerous mammal. This is because they display extremely aggressive behaviour and have a penchant for attacking humans when they have not been provoked. Recently an unidentified couple who were touring South Africa’s Kruger National Park experienced the hippos aggression first hand when they came across one that was clearly not happy to see them.

Easily stressed animals

A video of the encounter was uploaded to the Kruger National Park YouTube channel which explained the reason for such aggression. Apparently, hippos become very stressed and aggressive during periods of drought when they seek their main source of food, short grasses, which because of the drought, end up being far away from the water where they feel most comfortable.

Will attack anything in the way of safety

The Kruger National Park YouTube channel goes on to say the hippos will attack anything standing in the way of their route back to the safety of the water. In this particular encounter, the hippo quickly became agitated with the tourists as they sought a better view for snapping a photograph. It is very unusual to see a hippo so close outside of the water and the animal decided it was time to attack the car.

The tourists remained calm

Fortunately for the tourist couple, instead of an actual attack on the car, the hippo decided at the last second to simply charge it. If it had actually attacked it would have been pretty horrific. Hippos are extremely fast given their size and have jaws which are powerful enough to open up a car’s protective metal like a can of baked beans. You have to give credit to the tourists as well because they stayed calm under an extraordinary threat and manage to have the experience of a lifetime.