Demolition of a hippo (warning - gets a bit icky)

whyone

whyone

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Ian
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I visited the Mana Pools NP in the Lower Zambezi Valley during the last week of October. This is an extremely beautiful National Park, bounded to the north by the Zambezi river. During Sept / Oct animals accumulate in large numbers on the flood plain as water and food becomes increasingly scarce inland. As ever, this was a self-drive visit - drive in, camp on the banks of the river and explore the Park. The brilliant thing about Mana is that you can walk without a guide, this is extremely unusual - unique in my experience. Once you have spent time viewing wildlife on foot, there is no going back to vehicle based safari's.

The unfortunate hippo in the following photo's had been excluded from his pod, and led a solitary existence for the last 2 or 3 weeks of his life. He gave up the will to live and after a brief skirmish with spotted hyena, two old male lions (brothers) took initial charge of the carcass.

Time from first to last photo is ~14 hours.

2R4C0277 by Whyone, on Flickr

One of the lions was in especially poor shape:
2R4C0290 by Whyone, on Flickr

2R4C0305 by Whyone, on Flickr

2R4C0319 by Whyone, on Flickr

It was smelly where I was standing -heavens knows what it was like in there!
2R4C0312 by Whyone, on Flickr

2R4C0328 by Whyone, on Flickr
 
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The following morning the hyena's had taken over (I placed a trail camera on an overlooking tree, so have over 300 twenty- second video's of the nights events to sort through).

2R4C0340 by Whyone, on Flickr

Hyena to left of photo showing wound acquired overnight:
2R4C0366 by Whyone, on Flickr

2R4C0376 by Whyone, on Flickr

Chasing off the (Brown and Lappet Faced) vultures:
2R4C0361 by Whyone, on Flickr

Hyena's showed some interest in us...
2R4C0385 by Whyone, on Flickr

2R4C0388 by Whyone, on Flickr
 
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Impressive ... what was your elfin safety approved escape route? :eek:
 
Great set, and I bet fantastic to watch - that young male lion looked like he needed a damned good meal!.

Was it literally just you and them? so you'd be stood there with that pair of lions right in front of you? Sounds absolutely amazing- something I'll definitely be looking up!
 
RacingSnake said:
Great set, and I bet fantastic to watch - that young male lion looked like he needed a damned good meal!.

Was it literally just you and them? so you'd be stood there with that pair of lions right in front of you? Sounds absolutely amazing- something I'll definitely be looking up!
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Yes, it was great to watch and yes, just stood / sat / lying with the lions and hyena
 
Many thanks for all your kind and encouraging comments everyone. :)
 
whyone said:
2R4C0379 by Whyone, on Flickr

Yes...that sort of thing was mildly disconcerting (not me in this photo).
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Surely that's extremely dangerous, they must be pretty tolerant of humans to come that close, and then if it sees you as prey - munch!!

David
 
Absolutely stunning set :clap: I'd love to go and see something like this....although not from that other photographers view point
 
Joe - many thanks for your kind comments - really pleased that you like the pictures.

David....it does look dangerous (and it would be foolhardy to suggest spending time in close proximity to wild animals is fee of risk). Mana Pools is a highly unusual (quite possibly unique) national park in that you can visit under your own steam, with the necessary permits, set camp, and during the daytime, walk, unguided. A certain amount of common sense and bushcraft is required - it is not just the obvious candidates like lions, elephant and crocodiles which need to be treated with caution and respect. All of the animals...buffalo, antelope hyena and especially hippo can cause problems.

The vast majority of people who visit Mana know the score and what to do and what not to do. I have been visiting for the last 15 years and can count on the fingers of one hand incidents where people have been hurt by animals. In the situation above, the hyena's keep coming until you kick your feet into the ground, then the back off pdq.

Damian - get out there (not necessary on your own, there are plenty of guided walking safaris available) and view animals on foot - it is so much more rewarding than trundling about in the back of a vehicle.
 
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Fantastic images, thank for posting.

We were in Zim a couple of years back, and found the restrictions disappointing around Kariba. Next time (if there is one) Mana pools will be on our list.
 
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Really incredible set, would love to see something like that and record it (y)
 
Great pics! I'm already planning to go to Southern African on a photography/holiday tour. South Africa - Namibia - Botswana - any finally Victoria Falls. Not only for wildlife animals, but also for landscape, people, etc

Anyway, what lens did you use for these pics?
 
Hi all, many thanks for taking the time to leave comments - they are greatly appreciated.

Graham - that's a good sounding trip you have lined up there. I have heard great things about Botswana and it is somewhere I would love to visit one day.

The photo's were taken with a Canon 5D mkiiii body and a 100-400L lens. For the lion shots the focal length was in the ~300-350 range, for the hyena's 100-~300. Photos were taken either sitting or lying on the ground.
 
new2me said:
http://www.zamsoc.org/?p=1991

A photo on the above page reminded me of this thread.
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Yes indeed. I am very well aware of the current problems at Mana and the controversial changes introduced by National Parks (no more unguided walking permitted) which is such a shame.

I'll not go into the politics here, I don't think it would be appropriate.

Specifically with regards to my photo, everyone in attendance that morning (maybe 15 people in 4 vehicles - a mixture of visitors with professional guides and self-drivers like ourselves) and everyone was a sensible distance from the hippo carcass, which was naturally the focus of the hyena's attention. They were not to any discernible degree bothered by our presence - they just went about their business. As the sun rose, they started to drift away and this is when they showed some interest in people - the hyena's approached people too closely rather than vice-versa.
 
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