That advice about staying 5 meters back from the bank is good, too. I watched a video of a croc which was taken underwater. The croc lay on the bottom of the river, about 5 feet deep, looking up at the bank. A young deer type animal came up to drink water. From underwater, you couldn’t tell exactly what was there standing on the bank but you could certainly see sunlight blocked by the body of the the animal. That was enough for the croc. The croc launched himself out of the water and grabbed the animal’s head much much faster than I thought possible. So yes...stay back from the bank 5 meters. The animals that duck back are pursued up the bank at horrifying speeds. What a video...still makes an impression on me.
The hippopotamus!
They share a lot of habitat in eastern Africa.
From a safe distance, a hippo looks dumb and really passive.
But, encroach on their territory, and they become psychopathically violent.
I saw underwater film that showed giant crocs swimming away at top speed any time a hippo came within 50 feet.
Apparently, just one hippo bite is so powerful it can literally cut a big croc in half.
Interestingly, in Africa, hippos kill many, many more humans than crocs do.
At night time, hippos leave the water and wander around on land, frequently into farmers fields.
When humans try to shoo them away, or accidentally block a hippo's pathway back to the water, a hippo, which usually weighs between 3,000 and 4,000 pounds, will just trample them.
They even attack humans who row by in small boats.
Perhaps most interesting of all, the hippo is not related to pigs.
Recent DNA tests show that whales are the closest natural ancestor of hippos.