Angry Hippo Chases Safari Boat On Chobe River

This amazing footage of a hippo chase was filmed by Johannesburg-based photographer and videographer Craig Clive Johnson while on a trip to the Chobe river with Pangolin Safaris at the beginning of this month.

Craig’s dad, David Johnson added the following comment on YouTube: “We were travelling on the Chobe River in Botswana, when we came across this Hippo which appeared to want to charge the boat, fortunately the iPhone was at the ready and we managed to capture this magnificent footage. The Hippo was closer to the boat than what it appears on the video. It is amazing how fast a Hippo can move in water, never under estimate a Hippo speed by its physical size.”

For those of us not familiar with photographing or viewing hippos, the most surprising thing about the footage is the speed with which the massive hippo is moving through the water. Toby Jermyn from Pangolin explains: “They literally run along the bottom of the river rather than swimming and then launch themselves upwards. The bow wave is the general warning but the guides know that the animal is several meters closer than the front of the wave.”

Read more about the chase on Traveller24.