Overview
- A tourist, Oznur Bell, filmed a male hippo charging and briefly pursuing her tour boat in the Okavango Delta on Sunday as the group traveled between camps.
- The boat's guide first slowed to avoid disturbing the animal then warned passengers and accelerated when the hippo began to follow, and no one on board was injured.
- Video shows the hippo propelling itself through shallow water by pushing off the bottom and bobbing its massive head and upper body as it pursued the vessel.
- Common hippos can reach roughly 16.5 feet long and weigh thousands of pounds, and researchers estimate hippos cause about 500 human deaths in Africa each year.
- Guides said chases like this are uncommon but underline how close-range tourism and human use of waterways raise the chance of dangerous encounters and may prompt renewed safety reviews by operators.