Khaki shorts and khaki shirt is the standard veldt or bush wear here. Camo clothing and netting is slowly catching on but few private game farmers look kindly on Rambo types running around on their land. I must agree that it seems unlikely that a hunter will shoot at a hippo while sitting on the sand tough. There was most likely a hide almost on the water. Usually used by bird watchers when no one is killing hippo. A camouflaged figure stalking and successfully hunting a hippo looks a lot better than someone sitting in a log hide with refreshments waiting for a hippo to surface fifteen feet away so he can shoot the unsuspecting animal. Shooting hippos in waterholes is lazy, and to my mind, unethical.
Hippos are traditionally hunted at dusk when they come out to feed. Hippos have tracks that look like human foot paths. You wait by one of these for the hippo to come by. They use these same paths on a very regular basis. That is why they kill so many people. The humans who use these paths don’t necessarily know them that well but they are very convenient. The humans then stubble across a feeding hippo, who gets spooked and tries to get back to the water and the safety this offers, but there is a dangerous human standing in the way and it isn’t moving so it must be trying to get me so I will bite it in half…
Exposing an important (read rich and willing to spend) American client to this is not good for business. Hippos are basically nocturnal, so shooting them in the day when they are less active is far easier, and much safer. The only problem is that shooting a sleeping hippo doesn’t sounds so brave. If the hunter mentioned was shooting the hippo in the water I don’t suspect they showed the small army of “trackers” who went in a boat to tie a rope or cable to the animal so it can be winched out?
Any ethical hunter will try to know as much about the animals they hunt as they can. Some things they don’t tell many hunters are some of the details about how hippos are when not being threatened. They probably won’t tell you the legends of hippos protecting small animals from predators. There is one story, whether legend or true I don’t know but it is not one you will tell to someone about to shoot what is basically a large aquatic horse.
Some campers were camping in the Kruger National Parks when one warm Sunday the older generation decided to take a nap. While parents were sleeping the small children were playing outside. When the parents came out at dusk to see what the children were doing that was making so much noise, they were shocked to see the precious younglings taking turns to ride on a large hippo’s back. When they charged in to “save” the children the hippo attacked. Why? To safe the small children from the large dangerous humans clearly attacking them.
I’ve herd two versions of this story. In one a ranger who happened to be strolling by saved the day by keeping the adults away and luring the children into a vehicle. In the other one of the mothers were killed.
Clearly only the toughest of big game hunter can take on a hippo. If this seems a rant I apologise, but I just don’t understand why someone would want to shoot a hippo like that, and it is shooting, not hunting.
Topic: A question for Too Short (Read 1529 times)
