Newlywed killed by hippo in front of husband during honeymoon trip | World | News
The couple went on a guided tour of Eagle Island but had to take a detour because a herd of elephants blocked their path (stock) (Image: Karl Ander Adami via Getty Images)
A pair of newlyweds were ambushed by a hippopotamus attack which claimed the wife’s life before her husband’s eyes in the Botswana Delta.
Janice and Bruce Simpson had been married for just two weeks when they went on a guided canoe excursion at Eagle Island in the Okavango Delta in 2003.
It’s understood that during the expedition, the trio were forced to stop because a herd of elephants blocked their path. After waiting for them to disperse, the guide opted to abandon the original route and instead go through the reeds close by.
Reports from the couple’s relatives reveal that roughly 200 metres from their camp, a hippo charged into the middle of the boat carrying the three, throwing them into the water.
Bruce dislocated his shoulder during the plunge and managed to resurface just in time to see the hippo had clamped its jaws around the 32-year-old woman’s chest, biting through her heart and lung, reports the Daily Star.
A drought was affecting the animals’ behaviour at the Botswana Delta at the time, said the husband o (Image: Getty)
The grief-stricken husband then remained with his wife while the guide left to fetch help, but Janice had already passed away.
Bruce escorted his wife’s remains from Botswana back to South Africa, where the couple lived.
Janice’s sister, Lauren Salters, reflected on the woman’s last days, telling IOL: “They got married at Zevenwacht wine estate on November 29. The next Thursday, they left for Maun, Botswana, for their honeymoon.”
She explained the couple had met while working together and “were absolutely besotted with each other.”
Mokoro trips are common in the Botswana Delta (Image: Getty)
She also described her sister as a “vibrant, bubbly person – so full of fun.”
Just weeks later, another woman fell victim to an attack by the same species of animal, also in the Botswana Delta.
Former Miss South Africa pageant winner Diana Tilden-Davis ran a safari company in the region alongside her husband, Chris Kruger.
On one occasion, while paddling a mekorro (dugout canoe) through the remote northern stretches of the same Delta where the Simpson couple had been, Diana inadvertently startled a hippo lurking in the channel.
Diana Tilden-Davis, who survived a hippo attack weeks after the couple’s accident (Image: AFP/Getty Images)
Her husband revealed in a statement that the hippo proceeded to bite Diana on the lower leg, just above the ankle. She was subsequently rescued and airlifted to Milpark Hospital in Johannesburg, where she underwent medical treatment.
He also offered an insight into why the local wildlife may have been displaying particularly aggressive behaviour at the time: “There is a severe drought in Botswana at the moment, and all the grazing animals, including hippo, are quite stressed because of the lack of grazing grass.
“This factor, together with the fact that the waters are normally low this time of the year, giving the hippo less chance to move away from human activity into deeper waters, could be one of the reasons why this hippo was so aggressive.”
