A courageous bush ranger was crushed to loss of life within the jaws of a rampaging hippo, after it ambushed a daybreak patrol alongside a riverbank in a nature reserve in South Africa.

Skilled patroller Sphamandla Mthembu, 31, was with three fellow rangers on the Mkhuze Sport Reserve 180 miles north of Durban shortly after dawn, defending a herd of elephants and rhinos.

The sufferer and three colleagues have been monitoring a set of footprints, on the again of a tip-off that poachers had entered the park after darkish, and had cut up up into two teams to circle them.

However the armed ranger by accident stunned a three-ton hippo that was returning to the river and was immediately charged by the beast, opening hearth on it to save lots of himself.

His gunfire introduced his colleagues dashing to the river path, the place the ranger was gripped within the jaws of the hippo, earlier than they themselves open hearth.

Native media reported that the ranger had suffered 9 gaping wounds to his physique within the horrific assault in northern Zululand because the group hunted for poachers.

They didn’t cease firing their rifles till the hippo was lifeless, earlier than shifting ahead to assist their mortally injured colleague.

However as they awaited pressing medical help, he died from the horrible crush and chunk wounds the hippo had inflicted on the father-of-two, who had been a park ranger for eight years.

Shie Mkhize, the chief government officer of Ezemvelo Kwazulu-Natal Wildlife, which manages conservation and patrols on the Mkhuze reserve, stated: ‘My coronary heart broke once I heard of the incident and discovering the phrases to talk to his household was so tough.

‘It was made much more tough once I was informed Mr. Mthembu just lately misplaced a younger little one and his household have been attempting to come back to time period with that when this unlucky incident occurred.

‘Our ideas are additionally along with his fellow rangers who want house to have the ability to course of what they witnessed,’ he stated.

South African Police have opened an inquest into the assault that occurred an hour after daybreak at 5.30am on Sunday because the rangers adopted poachers footprints by the River Mkhuze.

A sport reserve employee informed an area journalist: ‘It was all very sudden and the hippo got here from nowhere and charged and trampled and bit the ranger who had opened hearth on it.

‘The others have been firing as nicely however by the point it was lifeless so was the ranger. They stated there was a lot blood they didn’t know the way he was nonetheless alive once they reached him’.

The 40,000-hectare Mkhuze Sport Reserve is a UNESCO World Heritage Website and is house to the famed African Massive 5 animals, made up of the elephant, rhino, buffalo, leopard and lion.

Hippos have the largest tooth of any land mammal, with their entrance tooth measuring over a foot lengthy and their canines as much as 18 inches lengthy.

Hippos kill extra people than some other animal in Africa, claiming not less than 3000 victims a 12 months in comparison with elephants, which kill round 500 and crocodiles 300 and lions round 200.

Rising as much as 12 ft lengthy and over 5 ft excessive, the large herbivores can run as much as 20 mph and might simply catch a human.

They’re generally known as essentially the most bad-tempered animal on the African continent.

Hippos will even assault giant boats on the river, and change into most agitated if people get between them and their younger calves.

What you are able to do

Help ‘Combating for Wildlife’ by donating as little as $1 – It solely takes a minute. Thanks.

This article by Jamie Pyatt was first printed by The Every day Mail on 22 November 2023. Lead Picture: Hippos are among the many most aggressive animals in Africa, and have the largest tooth of any land mammal.