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The other day a hippopotamus broke my heart. You know how it goes: Pretty average day at the Serengeti, the weather is hot, good for a long bath in the river, all the chaps are having a mellow time along the banks and so is a merry band of furry impalas, who have just decided to cross the river. As the mechanics of herd lysis would have it, of course not everyone makes it to the other side scott free: There's one last impala who seems to be stuck in the water, not bobbing up and down, but strangely static. Then a scaly torso emerges, and now we can see that there's a huge alligator clamping him to the spot with his jaws, and in a few more seconds the impala will have disappeared, dragged down to the bottom of the river to never resurface again.
*Then* it gets interesting. Out of nowhere, splashing water all around him as he strides towards the scene, an immense hippo charges at the alligator, who, startled, opens his mouth and flees, leaving the impala floating in a small pool of blood that the river slowly washes away. It doesn't stop there. Now the hippo opens his mouth and bites gently on the impala's nape, dragging him with little effort but extreme care to the river bank - where hyenas already gather at a distance, watching intently. The little animal looks dizzy and limp, it can't put itself on all fours again, and the hippopotamus now uses his mouth to lift the impala's head one, two, three times, gently supporting him, but every time the hippo draws his mouth away the impala's head falls to the ground again, until his whole body stops moving.
The hippopotamus just stood there, gazing with maybe a perplexed stare down on the little animal, for one minute or so, and then slowly went away, diving back into the water. To me, his slow pace and the whole ponderousness of his presence seemed to underline a melancholy which might or not have been there, but made the scene really pungent to me. The hyenas rained on the carcass, but they didn't have it for too long: The patient alligator returned, and with a quick spring to dry land he put the hyenas on the run, recovered his lunch and soon disappeared again.
That was one of the coolest things I've ever seen an animal do, and that's my story. |
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