White Rhino Charges at Tourists for More Than a Minute in Terrifying Escape Video
A group of tourists in South Africa got more than they bargained for while on a recent safari.
The group was on the lookout for leopards, but instead had a terrifying encounter with a white rhinoceros. The massive animal was in the vehicle’s path and ended up charging when the group tried to pass by, Rian Boshoff, a tourist with the group, told ABC News.
“At first, I just thought it’s going to be like a short charge and then it would stop,” Boshoff told the outlet. “The road had a lot of turns in it which made it difficult for us to get away.”
Boshoff said that the rhino seemed “determined” to get to the vehicle.
“The driver took a 90-degree turn into the bush to try and deter the rhino because they have bad eyesight,” Boshoff said.
White rhinoceros — which are the second-largest land mammal in the world, according to the World Wildlife Fund — can charge up to 30 miles per hour, and male rhinos are notorious for protecting their territory.
The rhino captured in the video chased the tourist group for nearly two minutes, ABC News reported, before eventually ending its pursuit.
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Boshoff recalled, “I thought it [was] going to eat us” — but the near threatened animals are herbivores, so there’s no need to worry about a rhino looking at you for lunch. Just avoid their two horns, which can grow up to five feet in length, according to National Geographic.
Thankfully, there were no injuries in this encounter, ABC News reported.
Nonetheless, Boshoff’s driver told the group that this same rhino has charged their vehicles before, ABC News reported, and Boshoff said “the driver really did a good job to keep us safe.”
Despite the frightening encounter, the white rhino sighting could be interpreted as a sign of the animal’s growing population, which is under threat from poaching. White rhinoceros are the only of the five rhinoceros species that are not classified as endangered, according to the WWF.
