• jubilationtcornpone@sh.itjust.works
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    2 hours ago

    I grew up in the north woods and I remember my grandma warning us very sternly, on multiple occasions, about being on the look out for black bears with cubs. She would say something along the lines of, “If you see a mama bear with cubs, you best scram and make a show out if it because you’re in her territory and she will always see you as a threat.”

    Black bears will avoid humans unless you startle or corner them. Hippos, on the other hand, see humans as a threat and happen to be 2+ tons of sheer malevolence.

  • sleepmode@lemmy.world
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    3 hours ago

    Let’s go to this dangerous fucking territory for our honeymoon despite multiple warnings about momma hippo mega beast who is multiple tons of pure muscle, so much muscle she can’t even float. She’s rearing her cubs and we’re gonna piss her off because I need those Instagram likes, a creature that could fuck up a school bus for funsies and be shocked when it knocks my guts out. Then I’m gunna write an expose about the beauty of nature, my wife tackling it fruitlessly like a gnat fighting a honey badger, and this was totally unexpected/expected situation. Gods these people are stupid.

    • Squizzy@lemmy.world
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      17 minutes ago

      There is no mention of social media, being shocked other than actual medical shock, exposé’. Very little mention of beauty of nature, no multiple warnings. The wife part of the story doesn’t seem all that unlikely if she did indeed hit it and it did indeed drop him. It may have been going to happen the samr way without her but who is to know, maybe the hippo realised two threats would endanger the cubs and retreated to protect them.

      Comments like these are just captain hindsight iamverysmart territory. Humans have looked to be close and explore nature since time began, before instagram but you got yourself so upset you created a new narrative.

  • Quilotoa@lemmy.ca
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    3 hours ago

    We used to go tubing down a tributary of the Congo river in, what was then, Zaire. A month after we left the area, another tuber was dragged under the water and drowned. If you get hippo warnings, don’t go.

  • DonkeyStar@lemmy.world
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    11 hours ago

    I wrote a reenactment.

    “There’s a dangerous mother hippo in the area.”

    “Well, we’re here to see plants, not hippos. Should we cancel?”

    “Of course not. We’d have to give the money back. We’ll just stay away from it when we go to where it is in our tiny, flimsy boats.”

    “It’s right there. I’m going to take a picture instead of paddlAAAAAAAGH-“

    Some people watch horror movies and think, “Why don’t they just leave?” or “Why would they go there in the first place?” Others apparently start booking flights.

    • pistonfish@feddit.org
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      14 hours ago

      The article states that they did not engage the hippo and tried to stay away. They also never blamed the hippo for displaying their natural behavior by attacking them. Shit happens.

      • Darkassassin07@lemmy.ca
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        14 hours ago

        They were warned it was there and even spotted it themselves, yet drifted away from the group and were subsequently attacked by a protective mother.

        That’s deff not the hippos fault, that’s on whoever was captaining the canoe.

        Don’t fuck around near hippos.

        • pistonfish@feddit.org
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          14 hours ago

          Neither I nor the people who got attacked blamed the hippo. They were on a guided tour with other people and tried to avoid coming too close. I would say that you would expect to be relatively safe when being guided by people who deal with such situations regularly. Such things can just happen. I would not blame them for being too reckless