Hippo Pod Tiny on Blackwood Base
3.5 cm
102-739 ...... 216 USD
This exquisite miniature shows a Pod, or family of five hippopotami,emerging from the water in the evening to graze. The piece stands 3.5 cm at the highest point, including the wood base, and measures approximately 15.5 cm in length. Each piece of wood is slightly different and the overall look may vary slightly from the photograph shown.
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No African landscape is complete without the hippo, wallowing in the warm shallows of the river by day - the very picture of peace and contentment - and grazing on the plains at night.
Africa’s ‘river horses’ wallow by day and graze at night. Living in herds with a dominant male in charge, these placid-looking beasts are in fact extremely aggressive - more dangerous than crocodiles. They use their fearsome tusks for defence and fighting - but are vegetarians and can consume up to 35kg of grass a day, often ranging many miles from the water on moonlit nights.
It is interesting to sit and watch a group of hippos at rest in the water - especially if one has a view from the top of a tall bank. I watched once from the banks of the Sabi river as two young bulls chased each other from one end of a pool to another in a swift-moving underwater ballet.
The little pink-and-grey babies take refuge as close to mother as possible in these cases, sometimes climbing half out of the water onto her back.
Hippos communicate with a deep, snorting chuckle; one of my favourite sounds in Africa.
An amusing legend tells how the hippo begged the Creator to be allowed to live in the river - but the Creator was concerned that such a large animal might eat all the fish. So He made the hippo promise to eat only grass and to scatter its dung in full view on the river bank - so that He could check that there were no fish bones.
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