Incredible!!!..,Hippo tries to Save "Impala" Antilope

Incredible!!!, at first he (the Hippo) chased the crocodile and then
he's doing First Aid on the harmed Impala Antilope.
Which despite the help still dies.
Anyway, i've never seen an animal acting like this before.
This Hippo is my Hero of the day!!!!!
Tell me your thoughts on this Vid.

Helping Hippo is a Hero!!!


[edit on 5-6-2008 by D0MiNAT0R 1OOO]

wow thats cool
poor impala it did die

link is no good in the US.

Here ya go:

yeah. they're just dumb animals. right.

not the first time i've seen something like this. truly incredible.

First, I knew Hippo's can be frigin fast, but did you see the speed of that thing???

Now, I've seen things like this in our more local nature too.
A while back (last summer) I saw some crows sitting around our yard and from time to time go into the hedges, coming out with either eggs or young birds.

The crows were later chased away, during an half hour long spectacle of bombardments and airshow stunts by all types of smaller birds that live here, whenever they tried to go for another egg or youngster. These birds included the following:

Passer Domesticus
Erithacus 4ubecula
Parus Major
Parus Caeruleus
Sitta Europaea
Picus Viridis

The crows, after a magnificent spectacle finally went away and didn't come back to our yard until several weeks later.

A few days after the event we were trimming the hedges and only found 1 type of birds nest in there (several nests, but only from 1 type of bird), that being from the Turdus Merula(dunno what its called in english)

So, even birds, with their tiny bird brains, don't just defend their own nests, their partners or themselves, they defend the nests of completely different kinds of birds too.

As a sidenote, isn't it a bit strange that animals these days act more civilized then humans do?

Even that crocodile was just acting out of hunger, it wouldn't even cross its mind to act out of spite, anger or just for fun.

[edit on 5/6/08 by thematrix]

that was a pretty incredible video, but I wonder why the the hippo did that, it wasn't like the hippo was being threatened, but i guess animals are a lot more intrigue then we thought.

We are not so different from the life we share our space rock with. All of this life is sentient and thoughtful. I have saved animals from things and this made me feel like I know that animals mind, and that things were alot different times ago.
The hippo did not have to do anything but felt the responsibility to.

[edit on 6-6-2008 by depth om]

That is trully amazing! I love the hippo it is just a cool animal! Able to take people down in just a single bound! Really I believe animals do have some sort of emotions, yeah not exctally like humans but things we can reconize (not trying to anthropormise here). In my experiance our domestic animals do grive when thier owners or housemates (other dogs and cats) die or leave the home! I have seen it first hand, rats for example (who are much smarter then we give them credit for) will actually stop eating, become depressed and sometimes die when thier cagemates die! After a terrible day, my cats will be much more affectionate, it is almost like they can read my feelings and are attempting to offer comfort! Elephants are another example of an animal with what are considered human emotions and will attempt to care for sick or injured members of thier herd! Great apes will often care for smaller animals like kittens, puppies or mice (of course I also know an even larger number that will catch and kill small animals in thier enclosures, but that is another story altogether).

Dr. T

reply to post by kupoliveson


It is a rare thing indeed to find a fellow hippo fan!


Interesting how it was stroking and nuzzling the impala. No attempt was made by the hippo to eat it either (since they will eat meat from dead animals occasionally).

I admit, I cried. (I'm such a softie).

My first thought upon seeing the hippos almost instinctual reaction, is that the poor hippo was a mother who had perhaps lost her own baby to this or a crocodile, and she acted out of anger towards the thing that took her baby.

Could have been a mother hippo who lost her young one to the mouth of a croc or through some other method of death. It's instincts might have taken over and it viewed it as its own. Once a mother dog nursed a tiger cub. Its not that far from a stretch from that relationship.

But truly, I love seeing things like this. It makes you think about how an animal has a soul, heart, and feels things like we do. Watching this video made me think of animal cruelty and how I always viewed it as beating a child rather than just an animal.

On the strange note it made me think about reincarnation. Yes, I believe in that in rare cases someone is reincarnated for a greater purpose, but not so much as in an animal.

All around, nice vid

[Edited for spelling mistake cup to cub Lol]

[edit on 11-6-2008 by UnforgiveableSin]

Originally posted by UnforgiveableSin
Watching this video made me think of animal cruelty and how I always viewed it as beating a child rather than just an animal.

To me it is almost worse than beating a child. Some animals are so innocent, full of emotions, feelings, how can people do that?

To be honest, it appears that this video was heavily edited to make it appear to be acting motherly. When the hippo's mouth is over the impala, it is reversed and zoomed in. You never actually see what happens when the hippo removes it's mouth, it's an exact reversal.

It does appear to be more territorial behaviour from the hippo, nipping it to get it out of it's 'patch' so to speak. It would not have charged it as it was getting up after it bit the impala, it would have nudged. It's even a different impala from when it was attacked by the croc in the water to when it was fighting across the current. The topology of the riverbank is quite different in each too, one is shallow, with the impala standing up trying to escape the croc, then suddenly it's up to it's head.

It's still a cute vid taken at face value. My mother would approve.

Thank you for the video.
I saw a National Geographic Video where the hippos train the alligators not to attack their babies by standing over the alligators while they feed. If the alligator objects it will be crushed. This is more awareness of their environment than just "instinct".

So sad!

But I don't really think he hippo was trying to save it. Looks more like he wasn't interested and then left.

At first it looked like the hippo was going to bite the Impala's head off, but then it just tried to nudge it to get up.

What would've been more amazing is if the Hippo went after the croc after the Impala died.

It was edited. The hippo might have broken the Impalas neck for all we know. I don't believe it was trying to save it.

reply to post by Jabejaha


You nailed it right on!

entertainment at its best, what beautiful emotions we feel for the animals of good will.\

I'd rather watch these all day than soap operas though, even if they serve the same purpose to different demographics!