A Dizzying Number of Hippos Gathered at This Spot in Tanzania—Why?

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The Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) recently shared a photo of a river in Tanzania full of large, gray river rocks . . . except they’re not river rocks, they’re hippos. The sheer number of hippos in the photo, though, is shocking. The animals are jammed in like sardines. But why are so many of them there?

“Yes, those are all hippos,” wrote WCS in its Instagram post sharing the photo. “Tanzania’s Katavi National Park, the 3rd largest park in the country [. . .] features [the] well-developed Miombo Woodland and seasonally inundated pans—areas that provide refuge to spectacular concentrations of hippos and buffalo.”

During the dry season, hippos in Tanzania’s Katavi National Park gather together in large numbers at bodies of water. In cases like the one pictured, hundreds of hippos gather in a single spot, which likely leads to some disputes, given these animals’ territorial nature.

See a dizzying number of hippos flooding a body of water in Tanzania here:

Header image by Aaron Nicholas/WCS Tanzania