From Steve Gettle

“Battle Royale” - Hippopotamus - Luango National Park, Zambia

This was one of the most epic battles I have ever witnessed in the natural world. It simply amazes me the power it took to lift the 3,000 lb bull off the ground like that. These two went at it hard for about a half hour, they were a bloody mess at the end.

Good Luck and Good Light! Steve

Image: Hippopotamus - Luango National Park, Zambia Nikon Z9, 600mm TC, 1/1000 @ f10, ISO 640, Image cropped 20% for final composition

  • anon6789@lemmy.worldOP
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    5 days ago

    That was a pretty interesting read. I looked to see if I could find more recent info, and it all seems to be coming from the same person, Joseph Dudley. The most recent report of his I found, from 2015, lists 17 cases.

    Dudley’s first report, the one linked in the Wikipedia article, highlights how much there still is to learn about animals we think we know. Hippos are pretty well studied, yet before the first incident in the 1990s, there was no documentation at all about hippo carnivory.

    We can find a number of reports of other vegetarians eating meat, I know I have seen photos and articles of rabbits and deer doing it, but it usually seems to come down to food shortages or other environmental stress, though not always.

    From one article on hippo cannibalism observations:

    From Nat Geo

    David Pfennig, a biologist at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, said that there are certain advantages to eating a member of your own species.

    “It’s a perfectly packaged form of nutrients you’re likely to need,” he said.