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The hippopotamus, whose hide alone can weigh half a ton, is the third-largest living land mammal. The large hippo of East Africa is an aggressive animal. With long, razor-sharp incisors and tusk like canines, the hippo is 'armed and dangerous'. Their main predators are people, who may hunt hippos for their meat, hides and ivory teeth. Hippos are unpredictable. If disturbed away from water, anything getting between them and the safety of water may be bitten or trampled.
Hippos move easily in water, either swimming or walking on the bottom. Their senses are so keen that even submerged in water, the hippo is alert to its surroundings. By closing its ears and nostrils, the adult can stay under water for as long as six minutes. Hippos are good climbers and can climb steep banks to graze on grass for night grazing. They leave and enter the water at the same place and graze for four to five hours each night in a loop pattern of one or two miles and occasionally up to five miles. They have small appetites due to their sedentary life, which does not require high outputs of energy. |
