This is the terrifying moment a hippopotamus attacked a boat full of tourists by repeatedly biting its outboard motor with its huge jaws.
The tour boat was cruising along the Chobe River in Namibia on March 22 when it came across a herd of hippos bathing in the water.
Witnesses claim that the captain had approached the group from a “safe distance” when suddenly a large male hippopotamus charged the boat.
The skipper took action and tried to facilitate the escape, but the boat was grounded in shallow water, leaving it at the mercy of the enormous marine mammal.
The hippo opened its huge mouth and began to bite into the boat’s outboard motor, leaving the surrounding plastic cracked.
Jackie Boshoff, who was on the river tour at the time of the incident, says she “really couldn’t believe what was happening in front of me.”
A tour boat was cruising down the Chobe River in Namibia on March 22 when it came across a herd of hippos bathing in the water. Witnesses claim that the captain had approached the group from a “safe distance” when suddenly a large male hippopotamus charged the boat.
The hippo opened its huge mouth and began to chew on the boat’s outboard motor, leaving the surrounding plastic cracked.
Boshoff, 55, recalled how the boat approached the herd of hippos the same way “our skipper always does, and has for over 13 years in this canal.”
He explained that “the capsule is known to be aggressive at times” and that the skipper “is always alert to that type of behavior.”
“We were quiet on the boat, not making much noise and the engine was off when we approached them from a safe distance,” Boshoff said. “Then suddenly, one particular male hippo started chasing the boat out of nowhere.
“When our skipper realized there was a potential problem if he hit the boat, he turned the boat around and walked away.
“But because I was looking at the hippo and not at the front of the boat, we entered shallow water and the propeller got stuck in the mud.
‘Only later, when we reviewed the footage, could we see what appeared to be a small calf following the male hippo as it charged at us.
The hippopotamus swims away after biting the engine of the river tourist boat.
He added: “It could be a very young calf and he was very protective of his calves.”
Boshoff noted that everyone on board “actually stayed very calm” and said they were fortunate that “nobody panicked.”
She has described the whole experience as shocking and incredible, saying: “You hear and read about these things, never thinking it could happen to you.”