https://www.wideopenspaces.com/hippo-and-turtles/Posted by Travis Smola
These turtles decided to use a hippo as a place to catch some rays.
The hippopotamus is one of Africa's largest and most dangerous animals. Hippos do not take kindly to having their personal space invaded by other animals. We have seen this confirmed many times with wild videos of them attacking rhinos, crocodiles, impalas, lions, and even a bull shark. Simply put, there are few animals a hippo will not take on in a fight.
We suspect this is mostly due to their nature. These are notoriously territorial animals, and they have an extremely short temper. Anything that interrupts their wallowing in the local watering hole is likely to set them off.
However, every so often we see that hippos do not have this attitude towards all animals. Sometimes they do not seem to notice other forms of wildlife at all. Case in point, this video of a massive hippo in a waterhole in South Africa with nearly 30 turtles sunbathing on its back!
https://youtu.be/GVVeRJspKQAThis amazing footage was taken in South Africa's Kruger National Park, which is THE spot for wild and unexpected wildlife sightings. Every time we think we have seen it all, a new video pops up to show us another unexpected encounter between two species that we have never seen interact previously.
Hippos have rather thick hides, so maybe he simply did not notice all those turtles sunbathing on his back. Which seems rather hard to believe given how large those turtles are! We wonder if this is a common sight at this watering hole. It makes us wonder how the turtles even thought to attempt this.
If you think about it, this move is a stroke of genius on the turtle's part. If the hippo does not care, this is the safest place in the whole watering hole for the terrapins. No crocodile or land mammal like a leopard or a lion is going to try and catch a turtle while it is on the back of a hippo!
