Life is rough for an African impala.
It's safe to say we do not envy any South African plains animals like the impala. These ungulates are prey items and there's tons of creatures looking to turn them into dinner every single day. As if that wasn't enough, there are tons of other dangers lurking in every brush pile, water source and mud hole around. There are practically no safe places to hide.
Case in point this video from South Africa's Kruger National Park. You want to talk about an animal having a bad day? This impala started off the day getting chased by some lions who want to make the small antelope into their snack.
The impala decides to flee the only place there are not lions, a nearby mud hole. However, this spot ends up not being any better. There's an angry hippopotamus wallowing here and when it sees the impala, it decides to destroy it. Warning that this video is a bit graphic.
We don't see the lions chase the impala into the mudhole, but we do see them watching intently from the shoreline. There was no getting out of this scenario. Talk about a bad day to be an impala. This was a lose-lose situation if we've ever seen one. The impala's choices were basically get ripped to shreds by lions or get ripped to shreds by a hippo. We're glad we're not an impala! It underscores the harsh reality that some of nature's cruelest scenes often play out in full view of tourists in Kruger National Park.
The hippo is often forgotten about in the list of Africa's most dangerous animals after things like lions, leopards, elephants and cape buffalo. However, hippos have a serious mean streak and they often don't like their space being invaded. There are countless stories out there about hippos attacking boats full of humans. I once read a story about one biting a woman's arm clean off at the shoulder.
They are especially defensive regarding their young. It appeared in this video that the hippo that killed the impala may have had a calf with her. Even though we know the impala means no harm to the hippo's young, the hippo doesn't know that. What happens next is just nature being nature.
For more outdoor content from Travis Smola, be sure to follow him on Twitter and check out his Geocaching and Outdoors with Travis YouTube channels.
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