A Woman’s 37th Birthday Canoe Safari In Zimbabwe Turned Dangerous
by Heather Cassell
A woman was attacked by a hippopotamus while on a canoe safari in Zimbabwe on Saturday.
Kristen Yaldor was canoeing down the Zambezi River with her husband Ryan Yaldor and three other guests with two guides near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe on her 37th birthday when one of the guides saw hippos on the right side of the river December 1.
The guide instructed the guests to paddle to the left, away from the hippos, Wild Horizons, the safari company, said in a statement to ABC News.
As the group paddled away from the hippos a protective mother hippopotamus hiding under the water with her young calf emerged from the water beneath Kristen and Ryan’s canoe tossing them into the air.
Ryan was thrown toward an island in the river and Kristen was tossed right in front of the hippo. Within moments, the hippo’s jaws snapped onto her leg breaking her femur as it dragged her underwater.
“Kristen was pulled under as soon as she hit the water,” Ryan wrote to the Herald. “She had no opportunity to swim to shore.”
Ryan swam to the island in less than 30 seconds. When he made it to shore, he turned around screaming for his wife. She popped out of the water with her right leg in the hippo’s mouth, an unidentified source told ABC News.
Kristen punched the hippo several times in the face. The animal eventually released her allowing her to swim to the island where Ryan pulled her out of the water and placed her into the nearest canoe.
The guide’s radio and cell phone weren’t working, which delayed care, according to media reports.
It took a helicopter an hour to arrive and another 13 hours before she was checked into an intensive care unit at a hospital in Johannesburg, South Africa. Kristen currently remains in the unit after two surgeries to her right femur with potentially more in the future, reported ABC News.
Kristen’s mother-in-law Martine Yaldor, a native of South Africa, told the Herald that her daughter-in-law was lucky that the hippo’s incisors missed her thigh. Instead, they clamped her leg between its flatter grinding teeth.
“If one of those (incisor) teeth hit her femoral artery, we would probably be planning a funeral today,” Martine told the newspaper. “By all accounts, she was incredibly lucky.”
Hippos are the most dangerous animals in Africa. They are very protective of their young. Female hippos weigh up to 3,300 pounds.
An estimated 500 people are killed by hippos in Africa a year, reported the BBC.
Conflicting Accounts
The couple wasn’t made aware of the elevated danger surrounding hippos during calving season, a source told ABC News.
They had “no idea” a baby hippo was present and that the mother was there to protect her calf.
The couple was not made aware of the elevated danger surrounding hippos because of calving season, the source said, adding that they had “no idea” a baby hippo was present, and that the mother hippo was protecting her calf.
“This is a very unfortunate incident that can happen in the wild with animals when we’re on their territory,” Martine told the Herald.
She criticized the tour company for not warning participants of the risks or canceling tours during mating season when there’s a heightened chance of animals being more volatile.
“But the people that provided this opportunity weren’t properly prepared…,” she continued. “They need to have the courage of convictions to say, ‘Sorry, it’s not safe today.’”
However, the tour company’s account of how it prepared guests for the tour, what happened on the river and if Kristen followed the guide’s instructions, and how long it took to get medical assistance differed from the couple’s recalling the events.
A Wild Horizons representative told Ryan’s uncle that the guide shouted instructions to the guests to swim to the island while he attempted to distract the hippo, but Kristen was taken under the water by the hippo.
In a statement to ABC News, the tour company said it detailed its extensive safety procedures. Every river trip has a couple of guides, one on land in a backup vehicle that follows the canoe and another on the water canoeing with the guests. Both guides have cell phones and hand-held radios.
“We would like to stress that while our guides are expertly trained and qualified to manage trips such as these, and that every preparation is painstakingly made, nature is unpredictable,” a representative of Wild Horizons said in the statement.
African Media Lies
Adding insult to injury, the portrayal of Kristen in African newspapers has been “distorted and misstated,” Martine told the Herald.
Kristen has been portrayed by Zimbabwean media as an American tourist who ignored the tour company’s recommendations and “recklessly engaged with wild animals,” reported the Herald.
Those media outlets incorrectly identify Kristen as Christine, Martine pointed out.
“The facts here are so distorted and misstated,” she said. “They actually did not do anything frivolous at all.”
“I almost felt like they were going, ‘Ha ha, here’s another stupid American tourist,’” she added.
Africa and going on safari wasn’t foreign to the couple at all.
Ryan has visited Africa several times. He has gone on safari and photographed wildlife in various game parks, reported the Herald.
This trip was the second time that Kristen traveled with her husband to Africa, Martine told the newspaper.
The Odessa, Florida couple, who work for Ryan’s family-owned phone and internet company PBX-Change based in Tampa, started their African trip with a visit to Ryan’s grandmother in South Africa, she said.
The safari was a part of Kristen’s 37th birthday trip to South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Their family wanted to plan something for Kristen’s birthday. They chose a canoe safari down the Zambezi River with Wild Horizons they found on Viator, a popular online tour booking company.
Wild Horizons has conducted safaris for nearly 40 years, according to its website.
Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority spokesman Tinashe Farawo confirmed the attack and urged tourists to avoid contact with wild animals, according to Zimbabwe Sunday News.
The United States State Department confirmed to ABC News that it was aware of reports of an accident involving American citizens in Zimbabwe.
Book your next safari with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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