The Deadliest Hippo Attacks: The Marius Els Tragedy
The murky waters of Africa’s ancient rivers hold secrets that have survived for millions of years. Among the thick reeds and shimmering heat waves of the continent’s vast waterways, a quiet menace lurks just beneath the surface. Most people envision majestic lions or stealthy leopards when thinking of the world’s most terrifying apex predators. Yet, a far more deadly creature quietly claims the lives of roughly five hundred human beings across Africa every single year. That body count is more than double the fatal attacks attributed to lions and leopards combined across the continent. This creature is the hippopotamus, a massive amphibious titan whose clumsy appearance hides an unpredictable and extremely violent nature.
To the untrained eye, a hippo floating lazily in a muddy lagoon looks almost slow, calm, and peaceful. Their round bodies and sleepy expressions give tourists the false impression of a gentle, oversized water giant resting under the sun. In reality, the hippopotamus is the third-largest terrestrial mammal on Earth, outsized only by the elephant and white rhinoceros. A fully grown male hippo can stretch up to five meters long and stand over one and a half meters tall. These massive creatures easily weigh more than four thousand one hundred kilograms, making them living tanks capable of immense destruction. To be trampled by a creature of such staggering proportion almost guarantees immediate, horrific, and absolute physical destruction.
Yet, their immense weight is only a small fragment of what makes these behemoths so intensely terrifying to encounter. Their mouths house razor-sharp, curved canine teeth that can grow to an astonishing length of fifty centimeters long. When a hippo opens its massive jaw, it displays a bite force measuring a staggering eighteen hundred pounds per square inch. That incredible crushing power is nearly three times stronger than the terrifying bite of a fully grown male African lion. With a single snap of its jaws, a hippo can easily sever human limbs or snap a wooden canoe in half. Although they are primarily herbivores eating grass, their violent aggression drives them to attack anything that dares cross their path.
They are fiercely territorial creatures that will mercilessly defend their stretches of river from any perceived intruder or competitor. Battles between rival male hippos frequently turn into bloody wars of attrition where tusks tear deep into thick leathered flesh. Anyone who strays too close to a hippo’s aquatic sanctuary risks triggering an explosive, blind rage that rarely ends peacefully. They are wild beasts in the truest sense, incapable of true domestic affection or submissive loyalty toward human keepers. Unfortunately, a wealthy South African farmer named Marius Els chose to ignore these ancient rules of the African wilderness. Marius lived on a expansive farmland property nestled near the banks of the river, surrounded by wild bushveld and livestock.
He was a rugged man who believed that love and patience could tame even the most dangerous beasts of nature. In May of 2005, a devastating flood swept through the region, overflowing local rivers and washing away wild animals. Among the victims of the rising floodwaters was a helpless five-month-old hippopotamus calf stranded on a muddy riverbank island. Local rescuers managed to pull the tiny, terrified creature from the churning waters before it was swept away forever. However, as the months passed, the baby hippo grew far too large for his original rescuers to properly maintain or support. Hearing of the young animal’s plight, Marius stepped forward and offered to give the growing hippo a permanent sanctuary.
Marius named the young hippo Humphrey and officially welcomed him onto his vast rural farm property with open arms. Where others saw a dangerous wild predator, Marius saw a gentle, misunderstood soul that simply needed care and human affection. He invested massive amounts of money and personal effort into constructing a custom man-made lake specifically for Humphrey’s daily enjoyment. The farmer bought truckloads of fresh apples and sweet vegetables to feed the growing beast every morning and evening. Instead of treating Humphrey like a wild animal that required strict security barriers, Marius treated him like a beloved pet. He brought Humphrey into his home, allowed him to roam the property, and treated the growing giant like his child.
As Humphrey grew into a massive animal weighing well over a thousand kilograms, Marius continued to push the boundaries of safety. He spent hours swimming alongside the giant hippo in the cool waters of the artificial lake he had built. Marius taught Humphrey to open his cavernous mouth on command so he could scrub the giant’s teeth with a brush. He would even climb onto the hippo’s massive, slippery back and ride him across the water like a horse. Marius proudly boasted to local journalists and visitors that he shared an irreplaceable, deep emotional bond with his giant companion. He insisted that people were wrong to believe that humans could only bond with domesticated animals like cats and dogs.
He admitted to reporters that keeping such a massive beast was admittedly a little dangerous, but he trusted Humphrey implicitly. Marius was convinced that the hippo loved him far too much to ever bring him or anyone else physical harm. However, those closest to Marius did not share his blind optimism regarding the giant predator living in their backyard. His wife, Louise, lived in constant fear of the massive animal and repeatedly begged her husband to be careful. She warned Marius that wild instincts could never be fully erased, no matter how many apples he fed the beast. Local wildlife experts and neighbors also urged the farmer to build secure enclosures before a tragic accident inevitably occurred.
Marius brushed off every warning, confident that his bond with Humphrey was far stronger than millions of years of evolutionary instinct. But in late 2010, the dark reality of keeping a wild hippo finally raised its ugly head on the farm. Marius’s nephew, Johan Maree, was working on the property when he suddenly found himself trapped near the water’s edge. Humphrey unexpectedly surged out of the river, his massive eyes locked onto Johan with unmistakable, terrifying territorial aggression. Johan froze in sheer terror as the thousand-kilogram beast charged toward him at an astonishingly rapid and terrifying speed. Most people assume hippos are slow on land, but they can easily sprint at speeds reaching forty-eight kilometers per hour.
Recognizing that he could never outrun the speeding giant, Johan tried desperately to maneuver out of the animal’s direct path. Humphrey slammed into him with the raw momentum of a speeding car, throwing Johan violently onto the hard ground. Humphrey clamped his massive jaw down onto Johan’s lower body, his sharp tusks piercing deep through flesh and bone structure. The hippo’s teeth tore through Johan’s pelvic area, narrowly missing his vital organs by mere fractions of a single inch. Marius rushed to the scene immediately, shouting commands and frantically distracting Humphrey long enough for Johan to be pulled away. Johan miraculously survived the brutal attack, but he required extensive emergency surgery and months of painful physical medical recovery.
Despite his nephew almost losing his life, Marius refused to put Humphrey down or restrict the animal’s daily freedom. He convinced himself that Johan must have accidentally startled Humphrey and that the hippo was not truly at fault. Marius continued to swim with Humphrey, ride on his back, and treat the massive killer as his gentle, loving son. He remained blind to the obvious fact that Humphrey was no longer a helpless calf, but a full-grown apex killer. A year passed without another major incident, lulling Marius deeper into a false sense of security regarding his beloved pet. Then came a hot, humid afternoon in November of 2011 that would shatter the farmer’s delusion in the most horrific way.
Marius walked down toward the river on his property to check on Humphrey and spend time with his giant companion. No one will ever know precisely what triggered the massive hippo on that fateful, quiet afternoon by the water. Perhaps Humphrey felt his territory was being invaded, or perhaps the raw, primal instinct of his wild ancestors suddenly took control. Without warning, the six-year-old hippo turned on the man who had rescued, raised, and loved him for six years. Humphrey struck with terrifying, lethal swiftness, using his incredible eighteen hundred PSI bite force to crush his owner’s body. The hippo dragged Marius into the murky waters of the river, violently thrashing the helpless farmer back and forth.
Hours later, family members grew anxious when Marius failed to return to the main house for his evening meal. A search party was quickly formed to trek down to the riverbanks where Humphrey spent most of his afternoons. There, submerged in the cold water of the very river where he was saved as a baby, lay Marius’s lifeless body. Paramedics who arrived at the scene found the farmer’s body severely disfigured, covered from head to toe in massive bite wounds. It was impossible for forensic investigators to determine whether Marius died from the traumatic physical bites or from drowning underwater. Humphrey was eventually shot, leaving behind a tragic, bloody testament to the unyielding power of wild animal instincts.
Marius’s story serves as a stark, harrowing lesson about the absolute impossibility of taming the world’s most dangerous land mammals. For those exploring the wilderness of sub-Saharan Africa, knowing how to handle a hippo encounter is a matter of life. If you ever find yourself in the African bush, you must learn to read the subtle behavioral signs of hippos. A hippo opening its mouth wide in what appears to be a lazy yawn is not tired or sleepy at all. That wide yawn is actually a serious, aggressive threat display, explicitly warning you to back off immediately or face violence. On land, hippos usually roam during the cover of night to graze on grass far from the river’s edge.
Because they are nocturnal, it is shockingly easy to accidentally startle a grazing hippo in the deep darkness of night. If you hear a hippo nearby, never attempt to sneak past it or corner it near its path to safety. Instead, remain on open ground where you can easily spot the beast and where the animal can see you clearly. Another crucial sign to watch for on land is large, scattered piles of dung spread violently across the ground. Hippos use their flat tails like spinning blades to spray their waste over wide areas, marking their paths to water. If you spot these distinct dung trails, you are standing directly in the middle of a hippo’s private highway.
If a hippo charges you on land, running in a straight line is almost always a fatal mistake for humans. You must run for immediate cover behind large trees, vehicles, or steep rock formations that can block the animal’s path. However, encountering a hippo while navigating the deep, moving waters of a river presents an entirely different set of fatal dangers. South African tour guide Paul Templar learned this lesson in the most terrifying way imaginable on the wild Zambezi River. In March of 1996, twenty-eight-year-old Paul was living what he considered to be a dream life in his home country of Zimbabwe. He was an experienced, certified river guide who led adventurous photographic safaris down the roaring, scenic waters of the Zambezi.
Paul was a former British Army soldier, accustomed to handling high-stress situations, extreme environments, and unpredictable hazards with calm precision. On March ninth, Paul was scheduled to enjoy a rare, well-deserved day off from his grueling river guide duties. However, one of his fellow lead guides suddenly fell severely ill with a dangerous case of tropical malaria that morning. Paul loved the river and his job so much that he happily volunteered to step in and lead the tour. The excursion consisted of three wooden canoes and a kayak carrying eager international tourists, accompanied by three apprentice river guides. Their goal was to safely navigate a scenic stretch of the river populated by elephants, crocodiles, and large pods of hippos.
As the small flotilla paddled down the river under the bright afternoon sun, Paul spotted a pod of hippos ahead. He immediately signaled for the other boats to follow his lead along a safe, wide path around the sleeping beasts. Paddling a canoe around hippos requires extreme caution because these heavy animals do not actually float or swim like other mammals. Instead, hippos use their powerful webbed toes to walk along the riverbed floor, launching themselves upward with incredible force. They can hold their breath underwater for up to five full minutes, allowing them to travel completely unseen beneath boats. As Paul safely guided his canoe around the pod, he glanced back to ensure the rest of his group was following.
To his horror, he saw that the canoe captained by an apprentice guide named Evans had drifted off course. Evans’s boat had floated directly into the middle of the hippo pod, startling a protective mother resting near her calf. Suddenly, the water beneath Evans’s canoe erupted violently as a massive bull hippo launched itself upward from the riverbed floor. The violent force flipped the canoe into the air, throwing Evans and his paddle flying into the fast-moving current. Evans splashed into the churning water, swimming frantically against a fierce current that was pulling him directly toward the angry hippo. Realizing his friend was in mortal danger, Paul turned his canoe around and paddled furiously back toward the scene.
Paul reached over the side of his canoe, stretching his arm out as far as he could toward his struggling friend. Evans reached back out of the water, his eyes wide with absolute panic as their fingertips nearly touched in mid-air. In that exact split second, the water between them exploded with terrifying force, and everything in Paul’s world went dark. Suddenly, Paul felt an overwhelming, crushing pressure slamming down against his spine, locking his entire torso in place. His head, arms, and upper body were completely trapped in a dark, slimy, suffocating space filled with a sickening sulfurous smell. Paul realized with absolute, horrifying clarity that he had been swallowed waist-deep down the throat of a massive bull hippo.
The beast had struck from beneath the surface, engulfing Paul’s entire upper body inside its cavernous, tooth-lined mouth. Trapped inside the living dark, Paul struggled desperately to move his arms, but the immense crushing pressure held him tight. The water roared in his ears as the giant beast dragged him down into the black depths of the Zambezi. Miraculously, Paul had been shoved so far down the animal’s throat that he triggered the hippo’s powerful gag reflex. The giant beast opened its jaws and violently spat Paul back out into the river, releasing him into the murky water. Paul surfaced, gasping frantically for air, his lungs burning as he scanned the blood-stained water for his friend Evans.
He spotted Evans floating nearby, completely frozen in a state of catatonic terror, unable to swim toward safety or speak. Paul swam toward Evans, positioning himself to perform a classic lifesaving rescue carry to drag his helpless friend to shore. Just as Paul reached out to grab Evans, another violent impact struck him from directly below the river’s surface. Once again, the world went dark as the enraged hippo clamped its massive jaws around Paul’s torso a second time. This time, Paul’s arms remained outside the beast’s mouth, allowing him to feel the animal’s sharp tusks slicing his flesh. He tried desperately to reach for the heavy revolver holstered on his belt, but the hippo thrashed him around violently.
Paul could literally hear and feel his own flesh tearing open like warm butter under the immense pressure of the teeth. The hippo dove deep underwater, thrashing Paul back and forth in an effort to drown and dismember its helpless human prey. Through sheer adrenaline and survival instinct, Paul managed to wriggle his bleeding torso free from the hippo’s mouth a second time. He burst through the water’s surface, coughing up blood and water as he tried desperately to swim toward the riverbank. Before he could cover more than a few meters, the relentless predator surfaced directly behind him for a third attack. The hippo clamped its massive mouth around Paul’s head, neck, and shoulders, locking its sharp tusks into his upper torso.
The beast went entirely berserk, violently thrashing Paul through the water like a ragdoll, smashing his bones with terrifying force. Paul felt his ribs shattering and his shoulder blade ripping apart as the blood drained rapidly from his mangled body. Then, for reasons known only to nature, the hippo suddenly released its grip and disappeared into the depths of the river. Another brave apprentice guide named Mac paddled his canoe into the bloody water and dragged Paul onto a nearby flat rock. The situation on that small river rock was catastrophic beyond anything the young guides had ever experienced in their lives. They were stranded in the African wilderness without a first-aid kit, a working radio, or a firearm to defend themselves.
They had only two damaged canoes, one remaining paddle, and their lead guide was rapidly bleeding to death on the rock. Paul had suffered a punctured lung, a massive gaping wound in his back, and countless deep bite punctures across his torso. His left arm had been crushed into a bloody pulp of broken bone and severed tissue by the hippo’s crushing bite. Nightfall was approaching fast, bringing with it predators, freezing temperatures, and the grim certainty that Paul would not survive long. With no sign of Evans anywhere in the water, the group was forced to make a agonizing choice to leave. They loaded the mangled Paul into a canoe and paddled desperately toward the nearest shore, fighting the river’s dangerous currents.
As they paddled, the enraged hippo continued to stalk them, bumping the bottom of their canoe repeatedly through the dark water. Miraculously, they reached the riverbank and endured a brutal eight-hour drive over rough dirt roads to reach a regional hospital. Over the following month, team of skilled surgeons performed multiple complex, emergency operations to keep the young guide alive. They managed to save both of Paul’s legs, but his crushed left arm was damaged beyond repair and required amputation. Days after the horrific attack, local authorities recovered the body of Evans downriver; he had drowned during the initial struggle. Despite losing his arm and nearly losing his life, Paul Templar refused to let the tragedy destroy his spirit.
He eventually returned to the Zambezi River, retiring from guiding to become a renowned international author, speaker, and conservation advocate. His story remains one of the most incredible human survival tales ever recorded against Africa’s deadliest river predator. While hippo attacks are a daily reality in sub-Saharan Africa, these dangerous animals have surprisingly appeared in unexpected parts. In the late 1980s, notorious Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar built a luxurious private estate called Hacienda Nápoles. To showcase his immense wealth, Escobar illegally imported four wild hippos—one male and three females—to live in his zoo. Following Escobar’s death in 1993, the Colombian government seized his vast estate and relocated most of the exotic animals.
However, the four hippos were deemed too large, aggressive, and difficult to capture, so they were left on the estate. With abundant food, no natural predators, and no dry season droughts, the four hippos quickly began to reproduce at an alarming rate. Locals dubbed them the “cocaine hippos,” watching in amazement as the small herd expanded into the surrounding Magdalena River basin. Today, over one hundred and fifty hippos roam the rivers of Colombia, creating an unprecedented ecological nightmare for local communities. They have become a dangerous invasive species, attacking local fishermen, destroying aquatic ecosystems, and terrorizing rural riverside villages across Colombia. The Colombian government has been forced to take drastic action, spending millions of dollars to sterilize, relocate, or cull the herd.
The bizarre story of Colombia’s cocaine hippos reinforces a fundamental truth about human interaction with the natural world. Whether brought to South America by a cartel boss or raised on a farm by a loving South African farmer. These creatures are apex forces of nature that refuse to be controlled, domesticated, or safely contained by human ambition or love. Their terrifying strength, explosive territorial aggression, and ancient evolutionary weapons make them one of the deadliest animals on Earth. To disrespect their power or mistake their lazy appearance for gentleness is an invitation to a violent, irreversible tragedy. Respecting wild boundaries is the ultimate key to surviving among the terrifying giant beasts that still rule our world.
