Monday, January 28, 2008

Now that's what I call dedication!


You're a scientist.

You want to collect samples of hippopotamus sweat for study in your laboratory.

However, there's one slight difficulty.

The average hippopotamus will stomp you into a mudhole (and fill it in after you) if you try to get near him.

Solution?

You get into an artificial hippopotamus suit, built strong enough to withstand the impact of an angry (or amorous?) hippo.

You smear the whole thing with hippo dung to hide your scent. (No word of how it smells to you inside the darn thing.)

Then you creep up on your hippopotamus.

So far, so good . . . but as the inimitable Robert Burns warns us, "The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley". Or, in this case, hippos and scientists.

You see, hippos tend to prefer muddy areas . . .

And your fake hippo suit, armored to withstand aggression, is very heavy . . .

And deep mud and heavy objects really, really don't go well together.

That sinking feeling you're getting? It's real.

For the details and pictures, see this report in the London Daily Mail.

As an old Africa hand, what else can I say but:

*gigglesnort!*

Peter

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Africa and the white man.
Africa gets into the white man's blood and never leaves; but it seems it gets into his brains as well, and he will do things never imagined in another location. Like dressing up in leaves and dancing.....but then, there's an organization in England that builds pterodactyls and tries to fly them....
What was I saying? Oh, yes, Africa engenders peculiar behavior in the white man....
LawMom

HollyB said...

You do have a WICKED sense of humor, don't you, Peter?

Mad Dogs and Englishmen, LawMom, or should we make that English dogs and mad men?

Anonymous said...

Remember that guy who studied bears? He said they were really frendly and he could get up close, actually live with them.

We'll be reading the same about this guy one day.