Michael - Thursday
In Africa
the Big Five are the animals that are large and dangerous (particularly to
hunters) and so have big reputations. They are the Lion, Leopard, Elephant,
Rhino and Buffalo. I’ve been in the bush
for the past week and lucky enough to have wonderful sightings of these.
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| Relaxed cat Photo - Mark Landers |
Of course
I’m upset not to be with all my friends at Bouchercon, but there are some
compensations, and it seemed appropriate to repost a blog about a favorite
animal, unjustly (in my opinion) deprived of Big Five status. So here it is.
I feel one animal has been very short-changed
and it’s an animal very close to our hearts (i.e. Stan’s heart and my heart). That’s the hippo. I’m sure readers of this blog know that kubu is the Setswana word for hippo, and
that our detective has that as his nickname.
I think the hippo has every right to be included in the top rank with
those other five. Not only are the
animals very large – the males go upwards of 4,000 lbs, coming in third to
elephants and rhinos in terms of size, but they are also fierce and can be
quite aggressive in some circumstances – they account for more human deaths in
Africa than any other mammal. And they
are fascinating creatures and interesting to watch, edging out the rhino for
second place of the three ultra-large herbivores in my opinion. No river in Africa is complete without their
cheerful grunting carrying across the water.
From a
physiological point of view, the hippo is amazing. How about an animal that spends its days in
the water, but is too dense to float?
That can hold its breath for up to five minutes. (Don’t try that one at home!) That has nostrils designed to close under
water, and a reflex that allows it to sleep under the water and rise for
breathing without waking up. That has
built in goggles (transparent membranes that close over the eyes under water). And that has built in sunscreen (the hippo
secretes an oily brownish substance which protects its bare skin from the sun). Pretty impressive design, I’d say. And no rude comments about it being obese. (Kubu would be particularly offended.) The hippo’s closest relations are the
dolphins and whales; it separated off from them about fifty million years ago.
Most of the
day they spend fully submerged or comfortably beached on a sandbar warming in
the sun (having applied sunscreen, of course.)
In the evenings they come out of the water and spend the nights browsing
and grazing along the river banks or quite far inland if the feeding conditions
are poor as they tend to be in the winter.
This year has been particularly tough on them with an extended
drought. They are busy with the
important issue of maintaining that 4,000 lbs of bulk, and you really don’t
want to interfere with them. In
particular, you don’t want to give them the idea that you are trying to cut
them off from the haven of the river.
That usually leads to aggressive behavior and possibly one of those
human deaths.
I’ve had my
own close encounter, mostly my own fault.
It was my first time in a canoe on the Zambesi river in Zimbabwe. I was with a friend who was a bit more expert
as a canoeist than I was, but not much. He
was at the back. At a certain point the
guide who was ahead of us in another canoe signaled us to move out into the
center of the river; he’d spotted a pod of hippos near the shore. What he didn’t know was that the hippos had
spotted him, and submerged and politely moved to the center of the river to let
us pass. My friend and I paddled out
into the river, proud of our calm expertise.
Moments later a huge jaw opened a short distance in front of us; we had
not reciprocated the hippos polite behavior.
We immediately put the canoe into what we thought was reverse. Unfortunately our expertise did not run to
reverse against the current. What we did
do was cause the canoe to rotate as the current took us towards that enormous
mouth. At the crucial moment the hippo
sank under the water and we passed over it.
I think I know why it didn’t convert our canoe into splinters and us
into mincemeat. It was laughing too
much.
Hippo behavior
is complex. The males have water
territories, but will tolerate other bulls as long as they behave in a
submissive way. I’ve seen an interesting
example at one of the dams at the game reserve where we’re staying. The dam is large and a family of five hippos,
one male and two females with youngsters, has taken up residence. They’re a charming group, and most days we
would pop in to see how they were getting on.
On our last evening, we arrived at the dam to discover that it now contained
six hippos. Apparently another male had
decided the dam was a nice spot to spend the day. The altercation between the males seemed to
involve bursts of rivalry where they would rise from the water bellowing and
threatening each other by matching their enormous mouths. Then all would go quiet for a while and one
would rest its head on the other’s back.
Maybe that’s submissive behavior?
Unfortunately it became too dark and rainy to see what happened in the
end, but I’d guess that all six went off feeding and that the interloper would
have found a more peaceful dam or river stretch for his day nap.
So from all
points of view, I believe that the hippopotamus fully deserve a place up there
with the other big five. I propose that
in future we have the Big Six.
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