The man who was eaten by a hippo

Paul Templer was swallowed by a hippopotamus—and lived to tell the tale, said Chris Broughton in The Guardian (U.K.). In 1996, the then 27-year-old wildlife guide was kayaking with a group of tourists down Zimbabwe’s Zambezi River when a 4,000-pound male hippo reared out of the water, knocking an apprentice guide overboard. “I reached over to grab his outstretched hand, but as our fingers were about to touch, I was engulfed in darkness,” says Templer. “I seemed to be trapped in something slimy. There was a terrible, sulfurous smell, like rotten eggs. I realized I was underwater, trapped up to my waist in [the hippo’s] mouth.” The beast repeatedly tossed Templer into the air, and then dragged him down to the riverbed. “Blood rose from my body in clouds. I’ve no idea how long we stayed under—time passes very slowly when you’re in a hippo’s mouth.” The hippo eventually spat him out, and another guide rescued Templer. He suffered 40 puncture wounds in the attack, and lost his left arm. Two years later, Templer led another Zambezi expedition, and when he drifted past the attack site, a huge hippo suddenly surfaced next to his canoe. “I’d bet my life savings it was the same hippo, determined to have the final word.”

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