Hippo at Israeli safari makes dash for freedom, then regrets it

Ramat Gan park officials says it is investigating how a gate was accidently left open for large African mammal to leave enclosure

The Ramat Gan Safari learned an important lesson this week: If you leave the gate wide open, the hippopotamus is going to escape.

And the young hippo learned something too: The grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

After keepers accidentally left a gate open on Wednesday, the hippo slowly walked out, in footage captured by the park’s cameras.

Once out, she stopped, munched on some grass… and then slowly walked back, much to the relief of a panicked park attendant.

The safari said it was investigating how the hippo — one of 25 living in the park — managed to get out. The park was closed at the time.

It’s not the first time one of the park’s larger creatures ambled out of the same gate. Last year a rhino named Tibor escaped before being caught, and in 2015 three rhinoceroses spent a few minutes on the outside after slipping through a side gate of the safari.

The trio, named Rihanna, Keren Peles and Karnivala, plodded into the street, where they were spotted by astonished joggers out for a morning run.