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 "One hippo named Lobi was feeling particularly adventurous and was moving freely around the African Savannah building — with very little preventing her from escaping into the Bow River." (caption and photo courtesy nationalpost.com)

“We could have had hippos God knows where.” – Jake Veasey, Director of Animal Care, Calgary Zoo, quoted in Rifle-wielding zoo staff risked their lives stopping hippo from escaping into Bow River during flood [via nationalpost.com]

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30 COMMENTS

  1. Now when someone asks why I need a high powered rifle……”In case of hippos!!” Funny how someone with such passion for wildlife still understands that they may need to defend themselves.

  2. Somehow I don’t think the founding fathers envisioned Hippos when penning the Second Amendment…but I do think they envisioned the unknown…and being able to defend your home and family from anything that may threaten it is a natural GOD GIVEN right.

  3. Well, I am glad to see from reading the article that they did not actually shoot the hippo. The “rifle-weilding” part of the headline is misleading.

    (Look! This is my shocked face!)

    • You may have heard about the CEO in China not being allowed to leave by factory workers. He is actually free to walk around and leave the building, but this morning, every news interview was behind a window with bars and he was interviewed through those bars. At the end of the day, they sell news, they do not simply report it and sensationalism sells.

  4. In moments like these, the uninitiated realize that a .458 Win Mag has a whole lot more stopping power than a tranquilizer gun.

    • Also works when the gate on a beef truck lets go and a dozen black Angus bulls are running down main street.
      Good times…

      • I was witness to the confusion and mayhem caused by a single steer escaping a animal auction stockyard. A dozen bulls would be ever so much more fun.

  5. I believe I read hippos kill more people in Africa than any other animal. Not intentionally, perhaps, but there you are.

    Now if you’ll excuse me, I have the perfect rationale to go buy that .470 Nitro Express I’ve had my eye on.

  6. Hippos are scary; they’ve got these giant assed tusk that are as thick as beer bottles.

    Every zoo with large animals should have high powered rifles capable of stopping them if the shit hits the fan. It’s a last resort, but it’s better to shoot a hippo or elephant than let it run wild in a major metro area.

  7. Some years back a couple of rocket scientists managed to provoke a tiger so badly in it’s enclosure at the San Francisco zoo that it got out and killed one of them. The way I remember it the zoo staff had a rifle at the zoo office but that they couldn’t access it because the one guy with the key to it’s lock wasn’t handy.

    • Pretty much if you’re ever in need of a dangerous game rifle, you need it right f$^*#%g now and dont have time to retrieve it off your person.

      I hear a pissed off bull elephant can charge pretty quick.

    • True story. The zoo was closed at the time, which had a lot to do with the unavailability of the rifle. The dead kid’s family sued; don’t know how that turned out.

  8. They should have let him get to the river. Stampede’s coming up. Hippo Roping would have been a wild, wild thing to watch, and the PETAphiles would have gone badly sideways, which would have easily been as much fun to watch as hippo roping.

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