I have heard that two animals account for more tourist deaths each year than any other, the hippo and the buffalo, although I've never seen any real data.

     The thing with hippos is that they feel safe in the water but very vulnerable on land, where they have to go to feed (which was news to me - I thought that they ate the green stuff off the bottom of the rivers and lakes in which they live, but I was wrong). How an animal that weighs between 3000 and 5000 pounds can feel threatened by anything that it's likely to encounter is beyond me, but I have to assume that they know what they're doing. Maybe a whole pride of lions or something else seriously equipped for hunting in a coordinated attack could take one down. But anyway. Water is where they feel safe, land is where they feel threatened - so if you want to die via hippopotamus, just get between them and their escape route to water when they're on land feeding and that will get their attention. And they can really move when they want to, so if they decide you're a threat, you're pretty much done for; there's a hell of a lot of momentum in a charging hippo, they're big and fat and will smash you flat. Not to mention their very big teeth and very wide mouths up front built on top of a very strong sense of self-preservation. There's a bit more about hippos and their habbits in my journal entry from October 22nd.

     Buffalo, on the other hand, are just plain ornery. They don't have a clear sense of territory; if they see you, then you're in their territory, and they generally don't let you slide by or throw a mock charge - an aborted charge as a warning, as do many of the potentially dangerous animals you're likely to run in to - rhinos, elephants, etc. They just chase you down and kill you, or at least maim you. Like hippos, they're herbivores and don't want to eat you, they just want you neutralized. Which often means dead.

     So: Hippos or buffalo, which ones kill more unaware / stupid tourists? I don't have the answer. But as a general rule, don't get between a hippo on land and its escape route to water, and don't get anywhere near a buffalo.