Adhama, a five-month old hippo at the San Diego Zoo, probably can’t dance on land. But she sure can swim with finesse! -via Uniblog

The late Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar had a pet hippopotamus named Pepe that went on the loose and was shot in 2009. This highly-detailed poster by Dan Zettwoch documents the foreign objects that Pepe ingested and were found after his death. Link -via Laughing Squid

This video shows crocodiles feeding on a dead antelope. Hippopotamuses wander up to lick the crocodiles, which the crocs tolerate because the hippos are so much larger and stronger. At the end of the video, you can see a baby hippo gnawing on the back of a very patient crocodile.

via Nerdcore

A few of humanity’s worst citizens – poachers – snuck in to the Kruger National Park in South Africa in the middle of the night. They’d planned on checking traps, but instead found themselves in the deadly gaze of angry hippopotamuses. Hippos are the animal kingdom’s number one killer of humans in Africa, so the men scattered. Two made it out alive; the third’s remains were found, ostensibly devoured by lions.

This story should serve as a cautionary tale for any would-be poachers considering a career in illegal wildlife trade. While authorities may have their hands full when it comes to stopping [them], there remains a more natural form of justice, lurking among the wildlife so often pillaged–and in this case justice, like dinner, was served.

Link |  BBC Brasil Link (Well-Fed Lion Photo: laherenger’s Photostream)

The photo above was taken by a visitor to the Zurich zoo, who observed a zebra placing its head in the mouth of a hippopotamus.

But the hippo had no intention of having the zebra for lunch – it was having its teeth cleaned… the teeth-cleaning session lasted 15 minutes and the zebra came to no harm.

Link.  Photo: Jill Sonsteby/Solent News.

A spokesman for Montenegro’s natural disasters commission, which responds to floods, said the law required animals that can endanger human lives to be killed. But state veterinary authorities said they were not entitled to kill animals.

Zoo owner Dragan Pejovic insisted Nikica is not dangerous, “unless someone attacks and kicks her.”

He said that her movements were being tracked by the zoo’s private security and that she was “tame and peaceful”.

Pejovic added that Nikica now had nowhere to return because the zoo, on a small island in a lake south of the capital, remains flooded. She was being fed with loaves of bread and bales of hay at a swimming pool of a restaurant owned by Pejovic and his brother.

Link -via Arbroath

(image credit: Savo Prelevic/AFP/Getty Images)

Equipped with a hydraulic crane and a cage, hippo hunter Chris Hobkirk and his team from the Mpumalanga Tourism and Parks Association set to work. In a four-hour operation, they drained the tank and used poles to gently nudge the hippo into the 3m-long (10ft) steel cage before winching it to safety.

Mr Hobkirk – who has rescued more than 180 stranded hippos in the past six years – said it was a tricky procedure but he was glad with the outcome.

‘Maybe we got lucky with this one. In the past, I have removed hippos from small dams. In those cases, the water levels have always been much lower so this was different.’

Link -via Arbroath