HIPPO and RHINO

Hippo are found throughout Africa, and cause more deaths by attacking boats and swimmers than any other animal.  Rhino are scarce and the subject of severe poaching.  But I love both of these species, hippo for their humor and social behavior and rhino for their primeval appearance.  For hippo, photography seems to work best from a vehicle parked along a river or at a waterhole, though sometimes you can sneak up to an overlook without perturbing a herd.  I have also approached both on foot (see below), including a time where we got between a big bull hippo and the Zambezi River.  When we spotted each other, the hippo made a beeline for the river, and with no hesitation jumped off a ten foot embankment into the water.  What a canonball!  Fortunately we were not in his direct path.

My closest call in Africa, along with being scared witless by huge prides of lions while camping alone in a tent in Tsavo (man-eater country), came in Ndumu National Park, South Africa, when I was chased by a female black rhino while hiking on foot down to the Pongolo river to photograph hippo.  A local guide was walking in back of me, and we came out of a thick grass clump to find ourselves face to face with a mother and her baby.  I figured we were in trouble and turned around to see the guide running for the forest, which was about 100 meters away.  I followed suit, and so did the rhino.  Fortunately I was younger then, and after having run the 100 yard dash in high school made it to the trees just before the rhino caught me.  I hastily picked a large tree to climb and reached up to grab the lowest branch.  To my horror, the trunk and branches had thorns sticking out two inches long.  Brilliant!  So I stood behind the tree, making like a tree myself.  The rhino, having poor eyesight, spun around a dozen times trying to figure who was a tree and who was not.  Lucky day.

Good Locations:

Mara River., Masai Mara Park, Kenya.  You can observe interactions with crocodiles and wildebeeste during the migration (August).

Khwai River Pans (Moremi) and Chobe River Botswana, along with many many other river locations.

For Rhino:  White rhino have been introduced in many southern Africa parks.  Umfolozi (SA) is a sure bet.  Black Rhino can be seen in Etosha Pan, Namibia, and Masai Mara, as well as various parks in Tanzania (Serengeti, Ngorongoro, Lake Manyara).  Lake Nakuru, Kenya, has relocated rhinos in a guarded fenced park.  Black Rhino are uncommon and endangered because of poaching and relatively less success in captive breeding in game parks surrounding by fences (like Umfolozi and Nakuru).