Hippopotamus
Habitat
Hippos live on the beautiful African savannas.
Hippos live in two places. The first is in zoos around the world. The other place is in the lovely African plains where the wild, golden, free grass grows and all the animals generously share scarce watering holes. They live there with zebras, giraffes, elephants, rhinos, and so many more animals. The hippos live in the watering holes with the crocodiles, but they don't have to fear. Their mighty jaws can snap a full gown crocodile in half!
Diet
Eat grass
Hippos are herbivores, which means that they only eat plants. Hippos specifically eat a strict diet of plains grass and some water plants,shrubs, reeds, leaves, and fallen nuts or fruit. Not a very interesting diet!
Description
Mostly submerged hippo with nose, eyes, and ears above water.
Hippos are large marine and land mammals. They are very fat (no offense hippos!), but that's what makes them cute. They are a silvery-grayish-brown color and have pretty tough skin, which can weigh up to have a ton all by itself and is completely hairless. They have chubby little feet with four toes each and webbing so that they can swim easier. Hippo shave large heads, with pretty long snout and a humongous jaw! They can stretch their jaw up to 150 degrees or about 4 feet wide. That's almost a foot smaller than your average sixth grader! They have small, beady, black eyes and small, fidgety ears that are on the sides of their head, the ears on top and the eyes slightly below. Their nostrils are on the very top of their snouts so that they can still breathe, see, and hear while almost completely submerged in water.
Types
Pygmy hippo
There are currently two types of hippos in the world. The first is the common or river hippopotamus. The second is the pygmy hippopotamus, which is lighter in color than the common/river hippo. The pygmy hippo is also smaller in size and on the endangered list. However, since the common/river hippo is so common, it's not joining it's cousin on being threatened by loss of habitat.
Fun Facts
- Because hippos don't have sweat glands, they produce a red juice from their skin to release heat. That's why people think that hippos "sweat blood", even though it's not blood, it just looks like it.
- Since hippos have such strong jaws, they can possibly snap a crocodile in half if they're strong enough and the crocodile is attacking. Yikes; one point for the hippos!
- The name "hippopotamus" comes from the Greek word "hippos" meaning "horse". These big guys were once called "river horses", but the hippo is more closely related to a pig than to a horse.
- Hippos are the third largest animals on land. Isn't that cool?
- When a hippo yawns, it is not a gesture of sleepiness or boredom, it's a gesture of threat, showing 32 razor-sharp teeth to scare whoever they're threatening.
- A hippo's nostrils and ears close automatically when underwater, just like we automatically breathe even when we're asleep.