Baby snapper gets a ride on the back of a hippo after mistaking him for a pleasant calm location to rest.
This is the amusing moment a newborn crocodile mistook a huge hippo for a rock and laid over it to sunbathe.
The sly croc crept up the side of the wallowing hippopotamus and laid across its massive back to unwind.
Even after the hippo started moving, the young crocodile didn’t get the signal and stayed in place for nearly 15 minutes before fleeing.
But the three-ton beast didn’t appear bothered by the three-foot-long creature, and ended up piggybacking on it. Field guide Richard Millar captured the moment on camera in South Africa’s Kruger National Park.
Richard, 21, had barely finished photographing the hippo in the water when the crocodile appeared.
‘I came across this hippo in the water with a heron on its back,’ he explained. Then this small crocodile crept up one of its sides and sat on its back.
‘It must have mistaken it for a rock in the water and just relaxed on it for a while.’ They are cold-blooded creatures who require sunlight to rest.
‘The hippo didn’t seem to mind and did nothing to frighten the croc away. The crocodile moved slightly but stayed motionless for around 15 minutes.
‘In the wild, hippopotamuses and crocodiles are not competitors. A hippo may try to bite a crocodile if it believes its young are in danger. It was a complete once in a lifetime situation. I’m pretty sure I’ll never see another photograph like that again in my life.’
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