Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - Two male Lions attack Hippo in Kruger Park

Hi all, here is a better description of what happened.

The whole episode took place at the waterhole about 10Km south of the turnoff to Olifants Camp, called Ngotso North. A Hippo was walking towards the waterhole late afternoon, the two male lions attacked the Hippo about 500m from the waterhole. They both then rode on his back the distance to the water hole. All of the time they were trying to break his spine by eating the flesh away on his back and chewing at the vertebra.
We watched for about 1,5 hours the Hippo was giving a brave fight, and the Lions were very wary of the Hippo’s teeth. The Hippo then walked with one of the Lions on his back to the water, but could not submerge itself enough. All the time the Hippo tried to keep his back flat so the lions could not easily bite into his spine. One on the Lions then lost interest for a while as it was clear the Hippo was not going to give up easily.
A number of times the Hippo tried to turn around and bite the Lions, each time they sprung about 2 metres in the air out of the way of his viscous teeth. It was amazing to see that the Lion was so strong it could actually stop the Hippo from standing up in the water as well.
Unfortunately we had to leave as it was getting very close to gate closing time at Olifants Camp. That evening the people who had taken the night drive informed us that the Hippo was still in the water and the Lions were just pacing back and forth.
The next morning we had well expected to see the Lions enjoying their Hippo breakfast; however the waterhole was empty. Amazingly enough the badly injured Hippo had managed to walk back up the road about 1.1Km from the waterhole and was now lying barely alive and severely injured a the side of the road.
We saw him at around 07.00 on Sunday 19th November. After speaking to the Kruger Park rangers they confirmed that they had discovered a dead Hippo in the same place later that day.
It was really incredible to see just how strong wild animals really are, the lions for keeping such a large animal at bay and the Hippo for managing to stay alive for so long despite the severe nature of his injuries.
The Kruger Park officials informed me that the presence of Hippos out of water at this time of year is not so unusual. It is the time of year when territorial fights take place causing the rejected Hippos to move on. The cooler weather also contributed to his moving around during the day as well.

I was using a D200 with a Sigma 50-500 lens and bean bag to get these remarkable pictures. The light was terrible as it was getting dark and had been overcast all day as well. My colleague did manage to get about 10 minutes of video before his battery gave out.

Mark I am also in Joburg as well, I did call you but there was no answer

All the best

Maurice