Written and filmed by Cari & Andrew from Hammer Design

About 2 years ago, during a photographic shoot at Chitwa Chitwa, we saw what must have been one of the funniest and most adorable sightings we’d ever witnessed.

After another excellent sunrise safari and a delicious breakfast, we were sitting on the deck enjoying the warm weather and gazing out over Chitwa Dam. There were some elephants strolling past, the hippos were relaxing, occasionally calling out above the water. Three old ‘daga boys’ (buffalo bulls) were to take a relaxing dip on the water’s edge.

We spotted what looked like a crocodile swimming towards one of the buffalo. Upon closer inspection through our camera lenses, we realised it was a baby hippo. What happened next had us in complete wonder. The baby hippo had started chewing the buffalos rear end, surprisingly, the buffalo didn’t seem to even care!

The hippo continued to chomp away at this buffalo-but, with the occasional warning side-glance from the old bull. The size of the bites varied, from small nibbles to large chomps. Occasionally, there was a small retreat back into the water from the hippo, as though he/she was lining up another ‘attack’, followed by our amused giggles as they would emerge wide-mouthed and clamp down on the Buffalo’s behind.

Eventually, the gummy biting from the hippo must have started aggravating the skin, because the old bull got up and walked away. The little hippo wasn’t having any of this and proceeded to follow the buffalo and mock charge him with his mouth as wide as it could go. There were no teeth to be found in this little guy’s mouth, but as far as he was concerned, he was the fiercest creature alive. A standoff ensued, with some chasing and splashing along the water’s edge. Perhaps both parties got bored because they decided to go about their daily business, leaving us sitting in disbelief, cameras still filming the scene as life at Chitwa Dam continued as normal.

Watch the video here: