One evening after dinner while on a photo safari in Kenya, we heard what sounded like a lion chuffing. It wasn’t that far away either. After my wife and I went back to our tent for the night, we could here the chuffing noise and it was pretty close. Then we heard something walk right by our tent. We used the walkie talkie in the tent and called for help just in case. A few minutes later we heard one of the camp employees laughing and talking in Swahili. I unzipped the tent and looked out. About 10 feet from our tent was a massive hippo. He was the source of the chuffing noise. He sometimes wanders through the camp at night looking for a place to graze. The employee directed the hippo away from our tent, it was much easier going to sleep that night knowing there wasn’t a lion outside our tent.
When I was in Ngorongoro crater in Tanzania my room was on the lower floor and the huge window didn’t lock. Before I went to bed, two cape buffaloes lay down outside my window for the night. I slept very well that night!
When I was staying in a tent in the Serengeti every evening the hyenas would call and cackle all around our camp until the resident male lion did an enormous roar shutting them all up.
I came across a big bull Roosevelt elk while biking on Gold Bluffs Beach Road (Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park). This was during rut season, he on the edge of the road, standing his ground and bugling…very intimidating to say the least. Not an animal you want to tangle with.
There was no alternate route back to my campsite so my only option was to wait for him to move on. I had no idea how long it would take. Luckily a car came by heading in my direction so I used it as a shield to make my way past the big guy.
way more people are being killed by hippos than by lions …
just reminded me on a pic I saw a few days ago, and that really impressed me…
those are some serious bone-crackers on the right …
I’ve been told to look for the claw marks. Dogs can’t retract their claws, so they show up in prints. Cats can retract their claws, so they’re don’t.
I first look for the X vs no X line:
Here is a cougar track that I saw earlier this year:
Our DNR also has declined on officially recognizing cougars in the state. I’ve seen two on separate occasions crossing a road in the state game area.
There are bob cats nearby
I’m pretty sure this a paw print of one.
The hippopotamus is regarded by many game experts and zoologists as the most dangerous large land animal in Africa. Although I don’t have statistics at hand, I believe @Al128 is correct that they’ve killed more people than lions, and indeed lion attacks on humans are rare. It sounds like this particular hippo was pretty tame but they are highly territorial and definitely to be avoided.
Stranger
[quote=“FloatyGimpy, post:46, topic:1006520, full:true”]
I first look for the X vs no X line:
Wow, I learned something today!
Definitely bobcat.
Says so right on the picture.
I had the bobcat sign that just to be sure!
Honestly, not sure I’d sleep well with a hippo nearby, either - pretty damn big animals and I wouldn’t want to piss one off. Also, they can be both dangerous and aggressive in their own right.
There are now a thing called micro cows, bovine pets about 3’ tall. The same is true of goats, sheep, and pigs. But you probably won’t meet them hiking.
I would not characterize them as “rare”. According to this article, " Including Sunday’s incident, the state wildlife agency has [documented 25 mountain lion attacks] in California since 1986 — four of which were fatal." And that is just California. Here in Ohio an attack would be rare. And I’m staying here.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/03/us/mountain-lion-attack-malibu/index.html
Ah, they are getting more common as people encroach on their territory, I assume.
I like hiking and the outdoors, and have enjoyed learning a little about what one can hear out there and how to use it. One thing to notice is whether the birds are generally making noise or not. If you’re quiet enough they don’t pay much attention to you, and pay more attention to any other hikers nearby, so you can use their going silent as a marker for hikers nearby. Also, though bird calls vary by species, they generally have special calls for warning each other and these calls sound somewhat similar across all species: high pitch and very brief. This has two advantages as a safety warning. One, it’s easily recognized by everybody (including us). Two, it’s hard to locate the bird making the call – when things are dangerous for birds, it’s not in their interest to be easy to find.