Weird relationship between Hippos and Crocodiles

Calgary, Alberta
December 5, 2011 2:13am CST
Crocs are like the bullies of the river, thats what we all thought since they were like the ultimate predators.But I didn't know a Vegetarian animal scares the crap out of them. It seemed like hippopotamuses have the hobby of smelling and licking crocodiles. but the crocodiles dont fight back.It is like they were scared. I was really laughing when I saw this video. I dont crocodiles can put up with hippos playing with them and why Hippos felt safe in the presence of crocodiles. This video inspired me to do this discussion http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L6vJXRwsoSk I dont know if Hippos and crocodiles get along like friends or something but its a mystery to me why aggressive animals like crocodiles dont fight back to hippos. Some Random additional Trivia, whales and dolphins evolved out of Hippos.
1 person likes this
4 responses
@Galena (9110)
5 Dec 11
Hippos may be herbivores, but they are large, heavy, agressive animals with very large teeth. Hippos are responsible for a lot of human deaths. I can see why the crocodiles leave them alone.
2 people like this
• Calgary, Alberta
5 Dec 11
The Hippos dont leave the crocodiles alone though, they seemed to enjoy licking them. Its really amazing to find out that crocodiles feel fear too. they know their limitations, but it seemed like this weird relationships between hippos and crocodiles is more of a friendship. since licking is like an animal's way of showing affection right? crocodiles have the courage to attack buffalos and elephants but chickens to hippos. I didnt know hippos are dangerous.
• Malaysia
8 Dec 11
Well as the video said, the hippos are more powerful than the crocodiles. So probably they've learnt to leave the hippos alone. Another theory of course, could be that the hippos are licking the crocodiles cos they're getting rid of some parasite or something stuck to the "scales" of the crocodiles. And since they're helping the crocodiles, there would be no reason to fight them off.
1 person likes this
• Malaysia
9 Dec 11
Yeah I do know that hippos are very territorial. Hmm if the crocodiles still do attack hippos sometimes then I do wonder why they didn't attack them in the video. There seemed to be more crocodiles than hippos in the video.
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• Calgary, Alberta
8 Dec 11
I thought that Vegetarian animals are harmless but Hippos just proven how dangerous they are since theyw ere territorial and they hate strangers. It seemed like they dontseethose crocodiles as strangers, but if its a crocodile from another river who just got lost,they might attack it. I found out that crocodiles occasionally attacks hippos if they have numbers advantage but its a rare case, cos most of the time they were scared of them.
• Calgary, Alberta
13 Feb 13
I guess they only attack them in desperate times. or maybe they only attack injured hippos or baby hippos.
@ElicBxn (63235)
• United States
6 Dec 11
more people die every year of hippo attacks than of crocodile ones... A grown hippo can bite a croc in half... About the only thing a croc is afraid of is a hippo
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@ElicBxn (63235)
• United States
7 Dec 11
they are a critter with lots of attititude!
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• Calgary, Alberta
6 Dec 11
who would have thought that a herbivore animal can be more dangerous than a carnivorous animal.
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@surfer222 (1714)
• Indonesia
6 Dec 11
On regular day Croc will be afraid of Hippos but i've seen on documentary channel that in a desperate situation like in a very hot and dry day where there's no other food, croc will attack Hippos too, specially when the hippo was alone and there's many croc in the river. I also watch that on regular day lions are afraid of elephant, but if they're starving and there's no other food, they will attack elephant too...
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• Calgary, Alberta
6 Dec 11
so in desperate times the crocs will lose their fears and might team up againts a hippo, another theory of mine, hippo meat might not be delicious for crocks, so they dont usually attack them.