“At the time it was still a very dry season in the reserve and the animals were battling with what little grass there was available. The area around the airstrip was pretty barren and I think the hippo was more curious and lonely because at the time many of the hippo had already left this area due to the drought.
In my opinion, everyone was more confused than anything else at this sighting. It’s not normal to see an interaction like this between any animal – never mind the 2nd and 3rd largest species! As always, when nature throws a curveball like this, as a guide – it is very difficult to explain.
About half of the rangers in the camp were returning from a drive and saw the animals on the way back to camp, but because of the strict rules around disclosing the locations of rhino sighting, we didn’t even announce it on the radio at all. Yet another unfortunate side effect of the rhino crisis and so in this case, many of our guests and fellow rangers were unable to witness this spectacular yet unusual interaction.
We do not normally view rhino at night, but with them being on the main route in and out of the camp it was impossible to avoid however, after a while they were left to themselves. I’m not sure what the final outcome of the interaction would have been but we never saw any injured animals afterwards so I can only assume that it ended peacefully. As you can see in the video, it is not an overly aggressive meeting, but more of confused one.
