The awful thing is that if this Hippo wanted to, it could've killed him far earlier than it actually did. It might've actually been attached in some way to this guy, and might've not wanted to hurt him, but eventually it had enough because it's a wild animal and Hippos, for animals that hang in groups, are very territorial and aggressive towards eachother.
Els playfully slapped the hippo, tried to direct where it walked and sat on it. That's not respecting it and treating it like the wild animal it is. No wonder the story ended in tragedy.
Imagine the man riding on hippo's back, must have been so adorable and not tiring for the hippo at all 0:01 and look at how the hippo is 100% just playing and not trying to charge the guy I wonder how this story ended...
Hearing about the death of this man, I believe that instinct is a powerful thing and can override years of love and affection... I had a friend who had two Newfoundland dogs that were as gentle as anything, (and she was an absolute saint of a person, and Ill never say that lightly about anyone) but those dogs attacked and mauled another large prey animal she kept as a pet and they mauled her when she was trying to protect it by getting in between them... These were dogs that let her put her arm almost all the way down one of their throats to retrieve an errant bone that was causing them pain. They trusted her and she trusted them, but something inside them just clicked in the worst possible way when those dogs saw that creature and they just lost their minds....
Whoa, that’s very surprising to hear Newfoundland dogs did that ? I have been around some my whole life and they were always so respectful… Sure they sometimes manifest predator instincts but they would never have hurt their owners intentionally. It’s pretty rare that well-behaved dogs do that in my opinion, I’ll even say it’s nearly impossible. I am sorry for your friend
We had the same experience with our family dog once. It bit everyone in our family but no so hard (just scratches like warning) besides me. My mom got it worst, she was bit hard when she was trying to feed him. The dog was raised since it was a puppy but for some reason it became agressive. It was not maltreated and was fed properly. I don't know, maybe our dog only loved and respected me cause I always play and feed it. Our dog was sent to the animal shelter to cause no more harm.
There was one brown goose near the croc attack amongst several others that jumped with all the other geese when the croc lunged at the heron, but amazingly the goose came back down in the same place and didn't move despite the croc chomping down on the heron right next to the goose.
