If you thought hippos were cute and cuddly, think again.
As this encounter between a pack of African wild dogs, a baby antelope and a hippo reveals, these extremely territorial creatures have a bit of a dark side. The footage was filmed at Mala Mala Game Reserve in South Africa by quick-thinking game ranger Pieter Van Wyk. Not for the faint of heart, the video provides a gruesome glimpse into the realities of animal life in the wild.
At first, it appeared that the hippo might rescue the antelope as it chased the wild dogs away. However, the dogs were persistent, and when several kept approaching the river’s edge, things took a deadly turn.
Out of nowhere, the angry hippo seized the antelope between its massive jaws and violently thrashed the unlucky animal until it lay lifeless in the mud. Whether the hippo mistook the antelope for one of the dogs or simply got tired of the intruder is unclear — but one thing is for certain, hippos generally do not tolerate other animals in their space.
