Tour guide swallowed alive by two-tonne hippo in terrifying attackMaria
Paul Templer suffered horrifying injuries (Image: @paultempler8888/Instagram)
A man lost his life and another was horrifyingly 'swallowed' during a terrifying hippopotamus attack in Zimbabwe.
Paul Templer, then 27, ran a tour business that took clients along the Zambezi River near Victoria Falls. The river was also home to a local hippo population, and for many years the two groups coexisted relatively peacefully, with only occasional 'half-hearted' confrontations.
However, on one fateful day in March 1996, Templer had taken clients to the river accompanied by his apprentices Evans Namasango, Mike, and Ben. The four guides led kayaks carrying tourists, gliding serenely along the river near the end of the tour, when Templer suddenly felt a sharp impact from behind.
In a first-person account for the Guardian detailing the harrowing experience, Templer recalled turning around to find Namasango launched into the air after being hurled from his kayak by a massive bull hippo.
Bull hippos typically weigh around 1.5 tons and possess enormous barrel-shaped bodies, short legs, nearly hairless skin, and massive jaws armed with canine tusks capable of growing up to half a meter in length, reports the Daily Star.
Paul Templer was swallowed whole by the hippo (Image: Facebook)
They are widely regarded as one of the most dangerous and unpredictable animals on the African continent, responsible for numerous human fatalities each year when boats are capsized or access to rivers is obstructed. Templer instructed the other apprentices to guide the group toward a cluster of rocks beyond the danger zone, then desperately attempted to reach Namasango.
Just as he was about to grasp his fellow guide's hand, Templer was engulfed by darkness. "There was no transition at all, no sense of approaching danger," he recalled, describing the sensation of suddenly losing both sight and sound.
He realized his legs were submerged in water while his upper body remained relatively dry, and, alarmingly, discovered that the surrounding surfaces were slippery and reeked of rotten eggs.
Bull hippos weigh 1.5 tons on average (Image: Getty)
Describing the moment, he freed one hand and explored his surroundings - "my palm passed through the wiry bristles of the hippo's snout. It was only then that I realized I was underwater, trapped up to my waist in his mouth."
In sheer panic, Templer thrashed about as violently as possible. He managed to break free when the hippo briefly opened its jaws for several seconds.
He desperately attempted to reach Namasango once more, but the hippo pulled him back beneath the water. "I'd never heard of a hippo attacking repeatedly like this, but he clearly wanted me dead," Templer documented.
The hippo then savaged Templer by biting him, launching him into the air and catching him again, like a doll, repeatedly before submerging him underwater, where he recalls gazing upward through 10 feet of water at the light above. Eventually - though Templer couldn't determine exactly after how long - the hippo forcefully expelled him to the surface, where colleague Mike pulled him into a kayak to safety.
Initial examination revealed Templer had sustained several severe wounds, with his lung exposed through a gaping injury in his back - a gash Mike managed to temporarily seal using packaging from a snack container.
Following additional emergency care from a medical team conducting a training exercise in the vicinity, the guide was transported to the nearest hospital, approximately eight hours away.
Templer found himself inside the hippo's mouth (Image: Getty Images)
Upon arrival, a physician documented nearly 40 puncture wounds inflicted by the hippo's teeth and determined Templer's left arm was "crushed to a pulp."
Following the initial medical assessment, Templer was warned he would probably require amputation of both arms and one leg - yet, defying expectations, he subsequently regained function in two of the threatened limbs, ultimately losing only his left arm.
Tragically, two days later, apprentice guide Namasango's body was discovered in the river, having drowned following the hippo attack.
The nearest hospital was eight hours away (Image: Facebook)
The creature responsible for attacking the kayaks appeared to have vanished after the incident, and efforts to locate and kill it proved fruitless.
"I'm convinced, though, that I met him one more time," wrote Templer, recounting an expedition he guided down the same river two years after the life-altering attack.
During his journey along the Zambezi, Templer recounts a terrifying moment when an enormous hippo suddenly burst out of the water alongside his canoe.
"I screamed so loudly that those with me said they'd never heard anything like it," he said.
Following the encounter, the animal plunged back beneath the surface and was never spotted by Templer again. He added: "I'd bet my life savings it was the same hippo, determined to have the final word."
Source: Crime
