One morning near Kubu Dam a female impala was reported as looking very sick. An experienced ranger was sent to investigate. He approached through the sweet thorn thickets, and saw the impala ewe. She was in a very bad way indeed. She could not even stand up. Rudi then consulted with the ranger in charge of field management for the section, and was instructed to put the animal down. Obviously not happy to be tasked with such a sad job the ranger approached his quarry, very quietly. He fired the shot, and then suddenly several things happened. A caracal leapt out of the grass near the impala ewe, moving into a thicket and a previously unseen hippopotamus charged straight for the ranger through the thickets and reeds on the edge of the dam.

The caracal was presumably stalking the sick impala, and the ranger’s early arrival startled it out of the hunt. It didn’t go far however. The hippo was a little less afraid of him and came at him at in a high speed charge (Charging hippo’s move at around forty kilometres an hour).

The ranger had no time to spare on decision making, and followed many hours of ingrained training, firing a warning shot into the ground before the hippo, spraying it with dirt and mud, hoping to turn the charge and save the animal’s (and his own) life. Not a second too soon the hippo broke its charge, swerving to the left, missing him by a few metres. The ranger had already chambered another round, and followed the animal in his sights as it ran back toward the safety of the dam. It was a very relieved and shaken young man that returned to camp to relate his story of a near miss. Later that day we went to investigate and found that the caracal had eaten part of the impala.