Hippo Facts

Hippo Facts

1. The word hippopotamus come from a word that means “river horse.” 

2.There are two species of hippos in the world today – the Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and the Pygmy Hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis).  Both are mammals that live in Africa, and each is a member of the family hippopotamidae.  Hippos are widely-reported as relatives of the pig but recent studies shown a possible relationship with cetaceans (i.e. whales and dolphins).  

3. They spend much of their time in and around water.  Common hippos live primarily in rivers and lakes throughout the continent south of the Sahara Desert.  Meanwhile, the more reclusive pygmy hippos are found exclusively in the swampy forests of western Africa. 

4. As hippos moved from the forests to the swamps, and from the swamps to the rivers, they started to get bigger and bigger.  This change helped them deal with life in the water.  Anyone who has ever tried running waist-deep in water knows it doesn’t help much to be quick and agile.

5. Modern common hippos are tied with white rhinos as the second largest land mammal in the world after the elephants. Male common hippos weigh 2 to 3 tons and females are just slightly less.  

6. Their skin is a gray to brownish-red with pink areas around their ears and under their chin.  

7. They have very few hairs on their body, but do have stiff whiskers on their broad lips that feel like a broom and a small amount of fuzziness around the edges of their ears and on their tail.  

8. The common hippo’s eyes and nostrils are placed on top of its head so that it can see and breath without having to lift its head too high out of the water. 

9. Pygmy hippos look much like a miniature version of the common hippo, but there are some definite differences. Pygmy hippos have proportionally longer legs and their eyes and nostrils don’t extend above their heads. The longer legs are more helpful to run through the dense forests, and since pygmies spend less time in the water, elevated eyes and nostrils aren’t really needed.

10. One of the most attention grabbing physical characteristics of both the common and pygmy hippo is their teeth.  The canine and incisor teeth of both hippos are enormous and grow continuously throughout their lives.  In some male common hippos, the canines may appear over 18 inches long!  When either species of hippo wants to give a warning it just opens its cavernous mouth in a mighty yawn and gives a fearsome, toothy display.

11. Common hippos are quite “gregarious” (meaning they like to hang out together). They are social creatures preferring to live in larger groups or “Pods” where they establish a hierarchy based on male dominance. 

12. Hippos spend most of the day living with the herd in the water or on the beach.  At night they leave the shoreline and move inland to feed.  Hippos are grazers; in one night a hippo may eat 100 lbs of grass!  When food gets short in the dry season, they have also been known to raid the gardens of African farmers. 

13. Pygmy hippos are much more solitary, but occasionally, a breeding pair or a mother with a calf is seen.  Pygmy hippos spend much of their day sleeping.  They come out at night in search of roots, shoots, and leaves to eat.  In order to get from place to place, they create trails that resemble tunnels through the dense underbrush of the forest.  It appears that these trails may be shared by different pygmy hippos, but there is little interaction between them. 

14. Baby hippos is usually born under the water

15. A relative of camels, pigs, and deer, the hippo has two lives in one! The centre of a hippo's day life is water. Like a hippo pool-party, sometimes hundreds of hippos, will share a territory of water during the day. Whether it's mating, playing, fighting or giving birth, hippos are nearly always wet.

16. The hippo's night life begins a few hours after sunset, when all the hippos file out of the water to graze on land by the light of the moon. They wander up to 10 kms from water and can eat as much as 45kgs of vegetation every night! 

17. Hippo-Talk? Hippos make a of variety grunts, growls, screams and other sounds underwater to communicate with each other! 

18. Hippos have glands that secrete a pink liquid on their skin that acts like sun screen in the African heat and as well as an anti-septic against cuts and scrapes. 

19. Hippos aggressively defend their territories and are reported to kill more people in 

20. Africa than any other animal.