A brave hippo mum defended her baby from an obnoxious male who charged out of a river at them both.
Lindi Taljaard was leading a tour through Kapama Game Reserve, South Africa, on August 15 when she spotted a rare sight around a watering hole.
Tense footage shows a mother hippo and her six-month-old baby standing warily at the side of the water when a massive male sprints out with his jaws wide open.
Despite weighing 200kg less than her foe, the courageous mother shielded her calf by thrashing her huge head and teeth around, eventually backing the male into the river again.
Lindi, 26, said: It was absolutely amazing. I got very excited. We had been with the hippos for two hours watching them and waiting to see how things turned out.
I have been a guide for five years and this was my first time seeing an encounter like this. When we arrived, we saw three hippos out of the water and watched them for a while as it is quite special seeing them there. One female went into the water shortly after we arrived but the other female with her calf stayed on the bank. They kept going closer to the water and then backing up. Then we noticed a male hippo in the water watching them slowly getting closer".
Lindi said that suddenly, he emerged from the water running towards the female hippo and her calf.
She did not seem to be a part of the dominant bull's pod which is most likely why he was acting this way. Or he was just being extremely obnoxious as the males can sometimes get very temperamental. The mom and baby eventually got left alone by the other two individuals.
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