What to Do If a Hippopotamus is Chasing You? Understanding Newton's First Law is Key
According to the text, the hippopotamus is considered one of the human’s greatest killers, causing an average of 500 deaths per year in Africa.
The animal is the hippopotamus, one of the largest land animals, with the heaviest recorded weighing 3.2 tons, possessing the strongest bite force of 800 kilograms – more than ten times that of a human. Its mouth can open almost 180 degrees, allowing it to tear crocodiles as snacks, let alone humans.
If a hippopotamus is chasing you, this is no joke. If you go to Africa, you really need to be careful of hippos, and avoid being chased after being caught. For example, this photo is of a Ugandan administrator bitten by a hippo; fortunately, he eventually escaped the ‘hippo’ mouth – it sounds a bit odd, when hippos eat people?
The hippopotamus’s most frightening thing is that it has no brain and is easily angered, biting whoever it catches. It once bit a crocodile in half, and I don’t know why it has such a strong lower jaw, it eats grass, it must spend a lot of effort.
Therefore, when traveling to Africa to admire these large species that have survived in our ancestors’ diet, the most important thing is to stay far away from them and maintain a safe distance. Because the hippopotamus’s speed can reach 30 kilometers per hour, while the average person’s running speed does not exceed 24 kilometers per hour, this 6 kilometers per hour difference is the ‘hippo’ margin you need to prepare in advance.
However, given that humans are the top of the food chain on Earth, if the hippopotamus kills you, it would diminish our status. I still want to provide you with several ways to escape when you cannot outrun the hippo by speed.
First, the hippopotamus is heavy, and may be more than 40 times your weight. According to Newton’s First Law, also known as the Law of Inertia, it will be difficult to change its direction of movement. So, if you are attacked by a hippo, you can slow down first, then seize the opportunity to suddenly flash to the side, so as to pass by the hippo with a chance. You must be very careful and seize the moment, otherwise you may have the same fate as the crocodile. You don’t have its sturdy armor.
Another way is to find a tree and run around the tree. The hippo will almost have no chance to catch you. You can ‘bullfight’ it like a Spanish bullfighter – just be sure to find a big enough tree, and don’t make it too big, or it will be easier for it to turn around.
Of course, these methods can only be used to deal with hippos. There is also a large animal in Africa that kills about 500 people a year, the same as the hippopotamus. That animal is the lion, the lion is much stronger than humans in terms of speed and flexibility. If you want to play ‘pass’, you’re just giving it a meal. Local people often carry a long-handled stick to reprimand lions, and if a lion crouches down to pounce, you must take the initiative to block its throat with a stick while scolding it and poking it, making it feel like vomiting. Recently, I’ve seen several videos of men approaching lion groups hand-in-hand, and they all escaped safely. There’s also a truck driver who used a walking stick to scold a lion that was already lowing and about to pounce on him, and he successfully escaped.
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