Two girls killed by hippo in Zambia

www.chinaview.cn 2006-04-22 03:43:11

LUSAKA, April 21 (Xinhua) -- Two girls died earlier this week in Mazabuka, southern Zambia, after a boat they were traveling in was attacked by a hippo and capsized in the crocodile infested Kafue river, a local official said Friday.

Namalundu Ward Councilor Beatrice Haloba said in Mazabuka that a boy who was in the company of the two girls aged 13 and 19 managed to swim to safety.

Haloba said villagers have managed to retrieve one body while the other has not been recovered because the hippo has become violent against people trying to fish it out.

Haloba has since called on the Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA)to urgently send officers to Cheeba area of Mazabuka to help retrieve the body.

She said villagers are scared of getting into the water fearing for their lives because of the huge population of hippos in the area.

Haloba said the increased population of hippos is posing a threat to human life traveling by water and urged ZAWA to crop thewild beasts.

Early this month in the same province one man and one woman were killed after a hippo and a crocodile attacked them in separate incidences. Enditem

Yikes. A tragic shame for the kids and their families. If that hippo doesn't warrant a PAC bullet to the brain, then I can't imagine what it would take to qualify...

This hippo was photographed from a canoe not that far from the Kafue mouth and this hippo is almost as close as he looks in the photo.

Not a comfortable distance and with my wife in the canoe who couldn't swim and was not provided with a life vest not a nice situation.

I can see deaths while canoeing in these waters could quite easily eventuate.

I had two clients attcked by a hippo on the Sabie River, just outside Hazyview. Luckily just a short attack on the boat, not the bodies, shaken bu unharmed.
I thought they were gonners, not much you can do, except look after yourlself and the rest of the group...

I have had otherru in with them, not so serious though, can be very unpredictable!

Dear Kayaker,

If a hippo wants you and you are in a fibreglass canoe such as a Canadian canoe you are cooked.

But if you travel in a 30 foot hardwood dugout big enough to hold 10 people and have polers with 18 foot long bamboo poles at each end and travel in say 12 feet of water you are pretty safe.

The hippos jump off the bottom and spear the boat with the two spear teeth on the bottom jaw but because they run on the bottom and have to leap up the water slows them down and they don't hit the boat too hard. They also bite the boat and the poles from time to time.

Also the polers can keep the boat going and relatively stable by pushing on the bottom, something you cannot do with paddles.

However if you are in 5 feet of water you have to shoot the hippo because what happens is it leaps at the boat coming in and out of the water and this creates waves that soon swamp the dugout and sink it.

If the hippo comes at you in shallow water over a hard bottom the best thing is to step out of the boat and shoot him because the hard bottom is a alot better shooting platform than a canoe. Mud is a problem however, because its unstable and you can get stuck in place and not dodge if you have too.

Hippos are scary creatures.

VBR,



Ted Gorsline

Kayaker

Where are you based in RSA?

Hi Shakari,

I used to work on the Sabie, guiding trips and the steep, waterfall riddled upper sections remain one of my favourite sections of river anywhere in the world! I used to live on a farm on the Hazyview/Sabie road, you may know 'Pats Stall'- on her farm, next door to the Lubbe's (Induna Adventures). I have been globe trotting for the last few year as a guide and instructor and am now doing my MSc in Canada (for my sins!) and cannot wait to get home! (PhD in the sights in PMB)

I have also worked around Mica/Hoedspruit on a pvt. reserve.

The penny dropped the other day.I have met you before...how's this for 'rifle nut memory'....I worked for Ian Goss during one of my Nat. Con. semesters and the July holiday the year after and remember you from being a British PH with a LH .416 WM, which was the first .416WM I had seen. I think that was about 1996! I still remember your client had a CZ .375 and Ian thought he was scared of it!

Yes, I really love that Hazyview/Sabie/Blyde part of the world..If I was forced to choose, I would say my favourite anywhere on Earth that I have been, in fact my priority when I get home next year, other than a hunt, will be to paddle the Upper Sabie sections and Blyde and saty at Otter's Den (Wynand Uys, the guys who alos does the balloon trips in that area). I miss cheap 1lb avocados everyday for lunch!

Ted, I have certainly had some hippo runs in's, but luckily all have been more 'scare than hair', the hippos on the Lower Zambezi seem pretty habituated to canoes, but yes, they do get damn close! The incident on the Sabie involved an unseen hippo (until absolute last minute). I had 6 other boats ('croc rafts', beefy 2 person inflatables) and a guide saftey kayaker on river right with me in a calm section and this one boat on river left. We were all relaxing, chatting and I did a second take, thinking I just saw hippo nostrils disappear infront of their boat. As I told them paddle over to river right the boat got smashed about 3 feet into the air. The hippo then took a bite at the rear of the boat (no damage!) and a second later they flipped the boat, both in the water...thats when I thought they were toast, but luckily, the hippo had buggered off and obviously was just slightly pissed off...very lucky indeed.
During high water, we had to scout the river in the morning before trips and employ a second 'suicide' kayaker to paddle a hundred or so yards ahead and scout, make noise etc. Obviously, we had to cancel trips on a number of occasions, I am not one to take great liberties on the water with hippos! If we did see them, we usually portaged well around them, but these meeting were rare...

A guy was doing some similar types of trips on the Olifants near Phalaborwa and had some major concerns with hippos there, carried a .44 in his boat, for what that is worth!
When we where planting Phragmitesreeds in a reclaimed vlei in Pilanesberg we had to have a hippo lookout with a .375 sitting on the Cruiser roof and regularly took unscheduled coffee breaks thanks to inquistitive hippos!

Cheers
Brian

Brian,

Now I remember you! - isn't it great when you can put a face to a name!

I know Pat's Stall etc as well - I now live on White River Country Estate which I'm sure you'll know...... next time you're in town come over for a beer or two.

I know the rivers you mention as I've often flown over them in a Kitfox - but that's as close as I've got.....