Hungry hippos and pretty pelicans
on A Serendipitous Journey (Kenya), 09/May/2009 05:06, 34 days ago
On Sunday we decided we could hardly say we’d been toLake Naivashawithout actually going out on the lake, so we hired a boat to take us on a tour. Before embarking, Chris admitted to having a premonition of being killed by hippos, but we didn’t let that stop us from taking our tour of the lake is home to more than 2,000 of them!With small white birds as our escort for the entire trip, we headed out into the wavy lake. Within minutes we were within about 10 metres of a large group of pelicans and came upon a pod of about 23 hippos, huddled closely together with the one male at the centre surrounded by his 22 females. Beyond submerging, emerging and yawning, the hippos didn’t move around too much, but that’s a good thing as hippos are extremely dangerous when provoked.(Our guide assured us that the boat went faster than the hippos so that with vigilance we were in very little danger.)During our short hour in the boat, we must have seen about 150 hippos - some large families of more than 50 and other lone bachelors with visible deformities from ruthless battles over the females for mating rites. The bachelors, we were told, are the most dangerous– which perhaps true with all species! ;-)About hippos- Hippos can easily outrun a human and have been clocked at 48 km/h while running short distances, faster than an Olympic sprinter.- They are one of the most aggressive creatures in the world, and often regarded as the most ferocious animal in Africa.- The average weights for adult males ranged between 3,300–4,000 lbs and females averaging between 2,900–3,300 lbs- They spend four to five hours grazing and can consume 68 kilograms (150 lb) of grass each night.