Which animal is stronger? Africa's deadliest animal

In the Middle Ages, the rhinoceros became the subject of the most improbable inventions, and only in 1513,
  when Portuguese king Emmanuel received a live rhino from India, Europeans got to know this animal closer.

Rhinos in Africa are called “chukuru” and are divided into two species. The white rhinoceros ("mucocho" and "kobaoba") after the elephant is the largest mammal weighing 2300-3600 kg. and the black rhino (borel and keitloa). Many Europeans believe that they are all one and the same animal, and their skin color depends on the soil in which rhinos wallow, but it is not. It’s just that there are so few of these animals that not every scientist can see all four species. Rhinos, unfortunately, gradually degenerate, due to consanguinity, rare births (once in 2-4 years) and not stopping hunting poachers.

First of all, rhinos differ in the number and size of their horns. These formations grow from the bony knoll above the nostrils of the animal. In white rhinos only the front horn is developed, but on the other hand it has a length of almost one meter and is directed upwards. The back one is just a little bump. The black hornbill also grows only the front horn and, moreover, is far from long. Keitloa is a real cuckold. It has two large, thick horns sticking parallel to each other, with the rear one reaching 60 cm, and the front one can stick out more than a meter! In ancient times, researchers in Africa came across even three- and five-legged rhinos! In fact, this horn is not exactly a horn. It has no bone basis and consists of a substance resembling densely compressed hair. After a special treatment, it can even be dissolved into individual fibers, and in the case of a breakup, it grows again. Because of this, the rhinos have been affected. For centuries, they were exterminated, their horns dried and crushed into powder. Rogues of all stripes advertised him as a means of increasing potency. In fact, in its composition the rhino horn is completely analogous to a human nail. But the strength of this horn is unusually high. He has a beautiful texture, and once made rhinoceros horn made canes, hammers, pens and glasses. The warlike Abyssinians even made the arms of their swords out of it.

And the version of linguists by the name of rhinos is as follows: in the Old Dutch language there is the word wijd, it migrated from the Boer colonizers to the Afrikaans language and there it turned into weit, it sounds one to one as English white. Only wijd means wide, and white means white. Agree that this animal is more appropriate to be wide than white. But literally, this name is also not worth it, because black rhinos are inferior in size to white very slightly. The word “wide” was applied to the upper lip of this species of rhinos - they have it short and flat. But black fellow lip hangs over his mouth a kind of proboscis.

The white rhino is common in South Africa, as well as in Kenya, and Tanzania  . It inhabits savannah, thickets of bushes. Herbalist. The black rhino is a large and powerful animal, reaching a mass of 2 tons, up to 3.15 meters in length with an altitude of 150-160 cm. Its face is usually decorated with two horns, but in some places (for example, in Zambia) - three and even five. In the cross section at the base, the horn is round (in the white rhino, it is trapezoid). The front horn is the largest, often its length is 40-60 cm.

At the beginning of the last century, black rhinos lived in the vast territory of Central, Eastern and South africa  . Unfortunately, they did not avoid the common fate of all large African animals, and now they are almost exclusively preserved in national parks, although in general the configuration of the area has remained almost unchanged. In 1967, from 11,000 to 13,500 of these animals lived on the entire African continent, and there were up to 4,000 of them alone in Tanzania.

In terms of lifestyle, character, properties and food, rhinos of all kinds are very similar to each other. Every day they go to a watering place, sometimes for 8-10 km, and lie in coastal mud for a long time. There are cases where rhinos are so addicted to mud baths that they could not get out of the viscous sludge and become a victim of hyenas. In the mud, enormous thick-skinned people are ready to spend the whole day, fleeing from the heat of the day, flies, gadflies and mosquitoes. Having taken a dirty bath, the rhinoceros leaves, covered from head to toe with a layer of wet silt, and goes to sleep somewhere in a shady place, and with the onset of the evening goes to a pasture, easily making its way through the most impassable thicket: it has to retreat only in front of large trees, small the trees and bushes the monster pulls out, knocks to the side and tramples with their feet. Despite their laziness, rhinos run fast, heavy trot or awkward gallop, developing speeds up to 48 km / h at short distances!

Rhinos sleep at night for 8-9 hours, with legs bent under them and head resting on the ground; less often the animal lies on its side, stretching its limbs. And the rhinoceros sleep is very strong (the Aboriginal children even had such a risky game - to put a pebble on a sleeping hornet).

As for food, in this respect, the unpretentiousness of a rhinoceros does not yield to the famous unpretentiousness of a camel: he eagerly eats dry spines, needles of spiny mimosa, cane, branches, sometimes reaching 2 inches across, tree roots and similar delicacies. All this is eaten by animals in terrible amounts, barely chewed and swallowed with earth and stones, although a rhinoceros, with its finger-like proboscis on its lip, could have better cleaned its food. A hulking beast can dexterously use this organ, take the smallest objects, such as sugar crumbs, and place them on an elongated tongue.

Black rhinos are solitary. Frequently encountered couples usually consist of a mother and a cub. However, unlike the Asian rhinos, the African ones do not have a strictly individual plot and do not protect its borders from their own kind. Large heaps of litter, which were previously attributed to the value of "boundary pillars", apparently, can be considered as a kind of "reference bureau", where the passing rhino receives information about its predecessors. The black rhino's eyesight is very weak. Even at a distance of 40-50 m, he can not distinguish a person from a tree trunk. The hearing is much better developed, but the main role in recognizing the external world is played by the sense of smell. Even in the open area of ​​the lost cub, the mother is looking for him in his tracks. If there is no wind, the rhinoceros, out of curiosity, can come close to a person literally close, but a sufficiently weak whiff will allow him to recognize the danger and take to flight or go on the attack.

Character and relationship

Black rhinos are almost never aggressive towards their relatives. Sometimes it comes even to mutual aid: in 1958. African Ellis, a Nigerian National Park (Kenya) parkkeeper, saw two females who led, supporting with their bodies, a third, apparently pregnant. Noticing the observer, the trio added a step. If the rhinoceros still start a fight, then there is no serious injury, the soldiers get off with light wounds on their shoulders. It is usually not the male who attacks the male, like in deer and other artiodactyls, but the female on the male. The battle is different if the rhinoceros does not give up the road or watering an elephant: such fights often ended in the death of a rhinoceros. Young rhinos often become prey for lions and even hyenas.

With their neighbors - buffaloes, zebras, wildebeest - rhinos live in the world, and among the birds they even have friends. Small olive-brown birds with a red beak drag along, or buffalo birds of the starling family, constantly accompany rhinos, crawl on their backs and sides, pecking out ticks that have stuck there. Help rhinos free themselves from ticks and Egyptian herons. And here is a note about the family of passerine larvae - larvae:

“Lich-eaters,” writes the famous African nevrod, Cumming, constant satellites of rhinos. Many times I stole to a sleeping rhinoceros, and always my labors disappeared because of these birds. They are the best friends of the beast and usually have time to wake him up on time. Fatty goof off perfectly knows their voice, immediately jumps up, looks around and starts to run. In these cases, I often chased him on a horse for several miles, and during this harassment the birds usually did not leave their breadwinner, sat on his back and sides; sometimes it happened that the lower branches of the trees, under which the rhinoceros ran, swept the birds from it, but the latter always returned to their place. More than once I happened to kill rhinos at midnight at a watering place: the birds, who thought that the dead were sleeping, stayed on them until the morning, and when I approached them, they flew away, only having used all their efforts to wake up the imaginary. ”

The relationships between the rhinoceros and the water turtles are very interesting: it is worth the rhinoceros to lie down in the mud to take a mud bath, as the turtles rush to this place from all sides. Having approached, they attentively examine the giant and begin to pull out the drunk ticks. Apparently, this operation is very painful, because sometimes a rhino with a loud snort jumps to its feet, but then falls back into the mud.

The nature of the rhino is quite consistent with its external image: it is a highly lazy animal. He is indifferent to everything around him, except for food, but in anger he becomes dangerous for every living creature oncoming. His anger sometimes flares up for no apparent reason. Black African rhinos are especially fierce. Sometimes, without any reason, they rush to the carriages passing along the road, smash them to smithereens and kill draft animals. Their rage is sometimes displaced even on inanimate creatures, trees and bushes, which they uproot, break and trample. The enormous strength of the rhino, its fierce character, the terrible weapon he owns, and the invulnerable armor that puts on the monster - all this is due to the fact that the rhino has almost no enemies, except, of course, man. Neither the lion nor the tiger dare to enter into combat with the monster, for which even the terrible blow of the mighty paw of the “king of beasts” that instantly kills the bull. Himself a giant of the animal kingdom, a giant elephant, fearfully avoids and gives way to the enraged thick-skinned.

All rhinos have no canines, no wool on the skin, which is very durable and does not have cones and folds, like an Asian relative. They do not know how to swim, but they can climb mountains up to 3,000 m. Elephant rhinoceros gives way. But the lion, who is not averse to hunting his cub, can kill a rhinoceros. There are cases when crocodiles and even hippos successfully attacked rhinoceros, who came to drink. In the animal world, the colossus has no rivals, but people with their quirky intelligence and cruelty can easily beat the rhinoceros; what they were actively doing in the first half of the last century. The pachyderms were hunted solely for the sake of their horns, which went for crafts, jewelry, and as a means of traditional medicine. However, meat and skin is also a good booty!

Breeding

Rhinos do not have a specific breeding season. The marriage game begins female. She invites them to the male, attacking him and hitting his side with a horn. Mating happens at different times of the year. After 15-16 months of pregnancy, the female brings one calf. The newborn has a mass of 20-35 kg, a tiny (up to 1 cm) light horn and within ten minutes after being born can walk, and after 4 hours the mother begins to suck. On the udder, the female has two nipples, of which she feeds it with milk up to the age of two, lying on its side, like a sow. By this time, he reaches a rather impressive size, and to get to the nipples, he has to kneel. He does not part with his mother until 3.5 years.

A cute trait in the character of the rhino is his love for children. Mother extremely loves her cubs, guards them with the greatest care and with fury protects from any enemy. Sometimes a hungry tiger, deceived by easy prey, attacks a young rhinoceros, but a ferocious predator never succeeds in freedom to profit from its hunting: an enraged mother uses the howl of a young calf and rushes at a tiger with rabies, which only a hasty escape can save in this case.

Rhinos live about 35 years. Sometimes live to 50 years!

According to the book "7000 kilometers across Africa" ​​by AP Redko.

Small children!
No way
Do not go to Africa
Go to Africa for a walk!
In Africa, sharks,
In Africa, the gorilla,
Africa is big
Evil crocodiles

02.
Will bite you
To beat and offend, -
Do not go, children,
Go to Africa for a walk.

03. Another very dangerous animal is the hippopotamus.

04. No matter what anyone says, and a hippopotamus, due to its large size and aggressive behavior, can be considered as one of the most dangerous animals for humans in Africa, especially when it is a female with a calf.

05. It even happens that hippos get into a fight even with elephants or rhinos. Well-known professional hunter John Hunter witnessed the collision of a hippopotamus and a rhino, as a result of which both animals died.

06. Hippos, come ashore, show special aggressiveness. They do not tolerate the neighborhood, even their relatives and drive away all the approaching large animals.

07. The diving hippo tightly closes the nostrils and presses the ears. A sleeping hippo also constantly rises for breathing, making it reflective.

08. Very aggressive

09. Usually hippo moves in steps. In rare cases, it can run at speeds of up to 30 km / h.

10. Satisfying the natural need for water, animals come to drink

11. Collecting at the reservoir, the herd is waiting for the leader's team, and only after that it enters the water.

12. They move in organized groups.

13. At the time of watering the animals are very concentrated, they can be frightened off by any rustling

Farmer Marius Els was killed by Humphrey, a hippopotamus, who was raised from 5 months. Hippo bit to death 41-year-old man on Saturday

A South African farmer, Marius Els, was killed by a hippopotamus named Humphrey, whom he bought at 5 months of age and raised, about which he wrote that "treat him like a son."

Hippo bit to death a 41-year-old man with his huge fangs last Saturday night. The farmer’s mutilated body was found in a river that flows close to his 16-hectare farm in an agricultural region of the Republic of South Africa.

Earlier this year, Marius was photographed sitting on a 1200-pound Humphrey hippopotamus in the middle of the river. The farmer wrote that Humphrey is like a son to him. He reported that many simply do not understand what the relationship between him and the hippo. Everyone thinks you can keep cats, dogs and other pets. But, as he says, has dealt with many of Africa's dangerous wild. Marius on his farm in the north-west of South Africa contained about 20 exotic animals, including a giraffe and a rhino.

But Marius felt a special love for the hippo, whom he bought at 5 months and raised him, having even dug a small pond on his farm.

At the time of the attack, Humphrey was already 6 years old, and his weight was more than a ton. Humphrey showed his dangerous nature in March of this year, when he wanted to attack two kayakers who were descending down the Vaal River. A 52-year-old man and his 8-year-old grandson jumped out of a boat and climbed a tree to escape Humphrey. The frightened travelers shouted and clapped their hands and tried to chase away the hippopotamus, but he was not going to leave either.

Els eventually managed to drive off Humphrey, seducing him with an apple. As he later explained, this behavior of the hippopotamus is due to the fact that he was hungry.

Video about hippopotam Humphrey and his master Marius Elsa, whom he killed:

Every year hundreds of deaths from hippos are recorded.

Hippos are among the most dangerous and unpredictable wildlife in the world.

By nature, they are very aggressive, especially when the young are next to them.

They often attack people for no apparent reason, while using their huge fangs.

It is estimated that they kill about 300 people annually.

Despite their short legs and heavy weight, they can reach speeds of 30 km / h over short distances and easily catch up with a person.

In southern parts of Africa, according to approximate estimates, there are between 125 and 150 thousand hippos. The existence of hippos is threatened by poachers and habitat reduction.

Many believe that hippos are slow and clumsy because of their size, but this is a dangerous delusion. Here is a video of how a hippo is chasing a motor boat in Chobe National Park in Botswana. The driver of the boat has time to accelerate before the huge animal emerges from the water.

In 2014, as a result of an attack of a hippopotamus on a boat on the river in Niger, 12 schoolchildren were killed - seven girls and five boys. Such data authorities of the country leads Agence France-Presse. The incident occurred, not far from the capital Niamey. There were at least 18 people in the cake. Most of them - 12-13-year-olds who went to school, located on the other side of the Niger River. The authorities did not specify exactly how they died.

Hippos, who in search of deep places in Niger often approach Niamey, frighten the locals. Experts note the strongest aggressiveness of adults at a time when their young are near them. In such situations, hippos often attack cattle that graze on the banks of the river.

Let's find out about these animals more ...

Photo 1.

Hippopotamus perfectly rightly considered among the most dangerous African animals. But they are dangerous only for those who are trying to threaten them. In fact, the identity of a hippopotamus has such features that many of us can envy. In this article we will try to tell about these amazing animals in more detail.

The life of a hippopotamus is somewhat similar to the life of a retired heavyweight boxer. Calm, seemingly clumsy and phlegmatic, a bit sullen, but not aggressive homebody. There are practically no enemies, all the neighbors know him well and are the first to greet him, and who do not know, just in case, he tries to stay away. He does not offend the little ones, he can even give help on occasion. Home, family, wealth - he has everything, and he doesn’t need anything else. But if the “gopnik in the gate” sticks, then ...

Photo 2.

Do not believe? Judge for yourselves: the predators are afraid of attacking a hippopotamus because it hurts him terribly in anger, and it is armed with excellent performance Despite the fact that the hippopotamus is an herbivore animal, his teeth are, perhaps, the most terrible that one can imagine, especially the lower fangs. They grow all their life and reach a length of more than half a meter. In a fit of rage, the hippopotamus easily bites in half the giant Nile crocodile.

The tricks and ingenuity of the African fat man, too, do not hold. There is a case when a hippopotamus, when he was grazing on the shore, was attacked by a lion. Perhaps the king of the beasts was too hungry, or something happened to his head, because the lions of hippos are usually bypassed. But, anyway, this lion coveted a hippopotamus chewing on a weed, for which he paid. He did not even begin to tear his fangs and trample down with his strong legs, but simply grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the water, where he was deeper. There the poor fellow-lion and choked.

Photo 3.

But another case: a hippopotamus who was resting in the river was attacked ... by a shark. It was a rather large (about two meters) specimen of the so-called herring shark, which lives mainly in the ocean. But by some miracle she was brought not just to the Mediterranean, but also to the Nile delta. And I must say, the herring shark is extremely aggressive and dangerous. Her teeth are long, sharp, bent back and form a continuous palisade. In her element, she does not let anyone through: fish, sea animals, people — everything goes to feed her.

And this predator decided to eat a hippopotamus, but literally attacked him. Unlike the lion case, the hippopotamus did the opposite with her — the sea monster was dragged ashore and was already trampled there. Who will now doubt that hippos have brains?

Photo 4.

Of course, there is a predator on earth - cruel and merciless, capable of lime at the root of any animal. This is a man. But people, oddly enough, from hippos do not need anything (as, in fact, behemoths from people). They have no valuable tusks or horns, their teeth are not listed on the market. All that a hippopotamus has is only meat, and even that is far from a delicacy. At the time of slavery, hippopotamus made scourges to drive the slaves, but slavery was officially abolished, and the production of the scourge disappeared with it. So even people do not touch hippos.

Photo 5.

Hippos lead a closed life. You can walk a few kilometers along the bank of the Nile and not meet a single hippo, and then suddenly it turns out that you have passed dozens of animals and simply did not notice them. You can swim in a boat a couple of meters from the hippopotamus and not pay attention to him. Among the rubbish that the Nile carries on itself, to see a couple of small black “floats” oh, how difficult it is a hippopotamus is saved from the heat, putting out only eyes and nostrils. During the day, the animals lie at the bottom of the river. Their ears are “plugged” with special membranes that prevent the ingress of water. So, in the daytime, the hippopotamus is starving, and on the promenade it comes out only at night, and here in terms of feeding, it comes off to the fullest. To feed itself, the behemoth has to eat 50-60 kilograms of grass per day.

Photo 6.

Of course, among the behemoths, as in any other, is not without conflicts. Sometimes during the mating season or when distributing feeding places, it ends with a fight, and blood is shed. But often the dispute about the bride and the territory is resolved completely by peaceful means. Hippos males periodically find out which of them is more. Usually, the applicant for power comes to the commander in chief of the clan and becomes close. Both hippopotamus attentively examine each other, and the one who did not come out of stature, bashfully moves away back home, and the larger specimen becomes (or remains) the “boss”. A war can only begin if both applicants have the same weight category.

Photo 7.

As for such features of a hippopotamus, like kindness and generosity, here are some examples.
The famous zoologist Dick Rekassel witnessed how a crocodile attacked one of the antelopes who came to the watering place. A behemoth, resting nearby, came to the aid of an animal beating in the teeth of an alligator. He fought off an antelope from a crocodile, pulled her ashore and began ... to lick her wounds. “The rarest case in the animal kingdom,” comments Rekassel. - The most real manifestation of mercy, and to the representative of a completely different kind! Alas, help came too late. Half an hour later, the antelope died from shock and blood loss. But the hippopotamus stayed beside her for another quarter of an hour, driving away the vultures that had flown away until the sun made him go back into the river. ”

Photo 8.

More recently, visitors to the reserve in Kenya had the opportunity to observe the actions of a hippopotamus - almost a professional lifeguard. Here is how it was. Wildebeests and zebras were ferried across the Mara River. The antelope calf, separated by its current, began to drown. Then a hippopotamus emerged from the water and began to push the kid to the shore. Soon, he safely got to the land and joined his mother, who all this time could only helplessly watch what was happening. Less than ten minutes, as the same behemoth saved a sinking zebra. He helped her keep her head above the water and, like the "antelopene", pushed her to dry land.

So these are not so simple animals hippos.

Photo 9.

Common hippos spend most of their time in the water, most often in fresh water. Occasionally may go to sea.

If earlier the animal was found in many places of the globe, now a very small number of them survived only in the areas south of the Sahara. But even in Africa they are becoming less and less due to the fact that they are being destroyed in large numbers by the local native population. Hippo meat is their main meat food.

Hippos adapt well to captivity, so almost all zoos contain this interesting beast.

Photo 10.

Who are the hippopotamus and hippo? Many people do not know that these words denote the same animal of the kind of hoofed. The first name is translated from the ancient Hebrew language as "beast", perhaps because of the massiveness of this beast. The second is translated from Greek as “river horse” - hippos really love water.

Photo 11.

His torso resembles a huge barrel, his legs are thick and so short that his stomach, when walking, almost drags along the ground. The length can be up to 4 m, and the mass is just fantastic - up to 5 tons! After elephants, the hippopotamus is second in size, just like the rhino.

The tail is short, but quite mobile, with the help of it it sprays droppings and urine - marks the territory.

On paws there is 4 fingers with membrane. When walking through the mud, the fingers are splayed, and the stretched membrane helps not to slide and not to fall.

Photo 12.

The ears are small, but they are constantly trying to ward off insects. The head resembles a roughly carved rectangle, and the muzzle is covered with special sensitive hairs. On many photos, the hippopotamus is captured with a wide-open mouth - and indeed it can open it up to 150 degrees.

There are frightening views of 36 teeth-canines. He uses them as protection or digs the ground.

The eyes are very small, around them large folds of the eyelids.

Photo 13.

These animals communicate unusually with each other - voice. They even have their own sound signals to indicate fear, aggression, danger. They express them with the help of a roar, sometimes sounds like a horse neighing or grunting. Hippos roar is very loud, spreads far across African expanses.

Photo 14.

Hippos live about 40 years and die more often from diseases. In nature, they are not afraid of anyone except the lion. Nobody dares to attack them anymore. Yes, and a lion encroaching on a calf, a female in a rage can drown in silt mud or just trample.

Photo 15.

The greatest threat is man. Poaching for meat, fangs and hippo bones significantly reduces their livestock. Despite the fact that any child knows the phrase “oh, hard work is to drag a hippopotamus out of the swamp,” these animals have been studied so far. Most likely, this happened because it is difficult to observe them, because they spend most of the day in the water.

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Photo 26.

Do you know what a hippopotamus does on this gif? I'll tell you now.

Hippos do not like to travel, they do not search for food in faraway lands, but prefer to grow grass themselves, in their own, so to speak, “garden”. They do it in the following way: having limited a certain area to feed themselves and their families, these animals regularly and diligently fertilize it with their own feces. And in order for the fertilizer to be distributed evenly, the beast “in the process,” so to speak, strenuously twirls its tail like a propeller. As a result, the “garden” of a hippopotamus, like that of a good farmer, is always qualitatively comfortable and brings an excellent harvest. And go far behind him.

Here it is worth noting that the females of hippos, while searching for the betrothed, meticulously monitor not the ability of the males to care for the opposite sex, but their success in agriculture. The more powerful the tail of the male hippopotamus is spinning, the more it gives out faeces and the further they scatter them, the greater the chances of the groom: this means his family will live in prosperity and will not die of starvation. The real marriage of convenience. But, probably, in this case it is the right approach.

sources of

http://russiahousenews.info/raznoe/zhivo tnoe-fakti-begemot

http://lenta.ru/news/2014/11/19/niger/

http://animalreader.ru/chem-otlichaetsya-b egemot-ot-gippopotama.html

  Let me remind you some more interesting little animals: look for example, who is, but the most. But remember why or here. Do you know for example, or maybe you do not know how it looks. Learn more, and why necessarily The original article is on the site. InfoGlaz.rf  Link to the article with which this copy was made -