Hope she’s not a hungry hippo! Mother carries her calf across a river in her MOUTH
- Mother hippo looks like she could crush her baby in an instant as she clamped her jaws around its head
- But she managed to get her calf to the other side of the Talek River in the Masai Mara in Kenya safely
- Wildlife photographer Ingo Gerlach, who captured the moment, explained the hippo was being protective
This is the moment a protective mother hippo carried her calf across a river in her mouth to protect it from other animals in Kenya.
The massive creature looks like she could crush her infant in an instant as she clamped her jaws around its head to make her way across the Talek River in the Masai Mara.
But she successfully protected the young hippo from harm and safely reached the other side of the water.
A protective mother hippo carried her baby across a river in her mouth to protect it from other animals in southwestern Kenya
Wildlife photographer Ingo Gerlach spent two hours watching the hippos and managed to capture the moment between the mother and baby hippo.
‘The hippobaby is in its mouth because it finds protection and security there,’ the 65-year-old, from Betzdorf, Germany, said.
‘The other hippos around it could be dangerous for the baby. In a so-called hippopool, a large collection of hippos gathered.
‘I have never experienced such behaviour before on my numerous trips to Kenya.’
The massive creature looks like she could crush her calf in an instant as she clamped her jaws around its head
The mother hippo (pictured) successfully protected the young hippo from harm and reached the other side of Talek River
He snapped the images standing around 100m away from the hippos one afternoon.
‘There were around 50 animals surround the hippopotamuses – I couldn’t tell if the dad was there,’ he said.
‘The hippos were snorting very loudly. I spent about two hours watching them.’
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