Waste not, want not (August 4, 2011)

This week brought a very interesting encounter with wildlife…. Well, actually, can I still call it wild”life”, if it was dead??  At this point, I would like to issue a disclaimer that this story is not for vegetarians or the weak of heart.  Now, let me start from the beginning.

For anyone who has not read my previous blogs, or who I have not succeeded in convincing that hippos can be very dangerous, let me give you an example.  There is a very large hippo that frequently walks several kilometers from the lake, where he spends his hot days, to graze on our property at night.  While they are certainly are magnificent to watch, hippos are well-known to attack people and it is very rare that anyone ever survives a hippo bite.  Needless-to-say, his presence made some of our neighbours nervous. 

Two weeks ago, this hippo was again seen in someone’s yard and this time the guard on our property was called to handle the situation.  Now, when I say “handle the situation”, I use the term loosely.  The guard approached the hippo on foot and waived his flashlight at it.  I must say that holding a flashlight would not bring me a great deal of comfort in this situation.  The outcome:  the hippo was startled by the light and turned to leave.  Feeling that he had accomplished his goal, the guard turned to walk back to his post at the gate.  At this point, the hippo turned around and bit the guard, severely injuring his arm and back.  He must have awfully good karma, though, because he did not die.

Last week, our friend the hippo again made his evening visit to graze on our property.  This time, the Kenya Wildlife Service was called to the scene.  It would seem that they are armed with more than flashlights, because in the morning, the hippo lay dead in the corner of the yard, with 5 small bullet holes as evidence that he wasn’t just sleeping.

This hippo is not sleeping.

Very small bullets given the size of the animal they were used to kill.

This is why people don't survive hippo bites.

  

Now, it turns out that word of a free hippo meat spreads quickly.  By 9am, the hippo was surrounded by 30-40 locals from Karagita, the slum across the road.  The men were armed with machetes (which are used here for cutting everything from lawns to hippo carcasses) and the women were carrying plastic bags and crates, ready to transport hippo meat.  The pictures below were taken once all of the meat had been removed from the outside of the hippo’s ribs.  What I found most striking, however, is how durable a hippo’s rib cage is.  Please note the man swinging the axe.  He swang several times while I was watching, but still did not manage to break through the bone to the meat underneath.

Gory, yes.  BUT, be it a hippo or a cow, this is where our meat comes from.  All of the meat taken off these bones was put to good use!

It takes many, many swings with an ax to break through a hippo's rib cage.

Eventually, duty called and I left the scene and returned to sorting sediment samples in my kitchen.  However, when the workday ended, I was curious to see what was left of my friend.  It turns out that nearly every part of a hippo can be eaten, because the picture below is all that remained.  Even the head was gone.  Interestingly, I learned later that the owners of the property had taken the head and they were able to get 15 kg of meat from the head alone.  Wow!!

This was all that remained of a car-sized hippo after all the meat was taken.

I must say, I was very impressed by the lack of wasted hippo.  I feel like it was not a life wasted.