Hippopotamuses (Hippopotamus amphibius) are massive, spherical, water-loving animals which can be native to Africa. The phrase “hippopotamus” comes from the Greek phrase for “water horse” or “river horse,” though hippos and horses aren’t intently associated. The closest dwelling family to hippos are pigs, whales and dolphins, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo.
Measurement
Frequent hippos, also called river hippos, are very rotund animals and are the third largest dwelling land mammals, after elephants and white rhinos, in keeping with the African Wildlife Basis. They develop to between 10.8 and 16.5 ft (3.3 and 5 meters) lengthy and as much as 5.2 ft (1.6 m) tall on the shoulder. The common feminine weighs round 3,000 lbs. (1,400 kilograms), whereas males weigh 3,500 to 9,920 lbs. (1,600 to 4,500 kg), in keeping with the San Diego Zoo.
These huge animals are associated to the a lot smaller and rarer pygmy hippo (Choeropsis liberiensis), which solely grows to be 2.5 to three.2 ft (0.75 to 1 m) tall and about 5 to six ft (1.5 to 1.75 m) lengthy, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo. Pygmy hippos can weigh between 350 and 600 lbs. (160 and 270 kg).
Habitat and conduct
Frequent hippos reside in sub-Saharan Africa. They reside in areas with plentiful water, as they spend most of their time submerged to maintain their pores and skin cool and moist. Thought of amphibious animals, hippos spend as much as 16 hours per day within the water, in keeping with Nationwide Geographic.
Hippos are social beasts, hanging out in teams known as faculties, bloats, pods or sieges. Colleges of hippos often encompass 10 to 30 members, together with each females and males, though some teams have as many as 200 people. Irrespective of the dimensions, the college is often led by a dominant male, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo.
Hippos are loud animals. Their snorts, grumbles and wheezes have been measured at 115 decibels, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo — about the identical quantity you’d hear when 15 ft (4.6 m) from the audio system at a rock live performance. The animals’ signature noise, known as the “wheeze honk,” will be heard from greater than half a mile (1 kilometer) away, Stay Science beforehand reported. These booming creatures additionally use subsonic vocalizations to speak.
Hippos are aggressive and are thought of very harmful. They’ve massive tooth and tusks that they use for preventing off threats, together with people. Generally, their younger fall sufferer to grownup hippos’ tempers. Throughout a struggle between two adults, a younger hippo caught within the center will be critically damage and even crushed, in keeping with PBS.
Although hippos transfer simply by the water, they cannot truly swim. In line with the San Diego Zoo, these animals glide by the water by pushing themselves off different objects. And so they can keep underwater for as much as 5 minutes with out developing for air, in keeping with Nationwide Geographic.
Hungry, hungry hippos
Hippos have a wholesome and largely herbivorous urge for food. Adults eat about 80 lbs. (35 kg) of grass every evening, touring as much as 6 miles (10 km) in an evening to get their fill. In addition they eat fruit that they discover throughout their nightly scavenging, in keeping with Nationwide Geographic. If meals is scarce, hippos can retailer meals of their stomachs and go as much as three weeks with out consuming.
Though hippos had been lengthy believed to be solely herbivorous, in a 2015 research printed within the journal Mammal Assessment, scientists reported that hippos sometimes feed on the carcasses of animals, together with different hippos.
Child hippos
Feminine hippos have a gestation interval of eight months and have just one child at a time, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo. At beginning, the calf weighs between 50 and 110 lbs. (23 and 50 kg). For its first eight months, the calf nurses whereas its mom is on land, or it swims underwater to suckle. When it dives, the calf closes its nostril and ears to dam out water. All hippos have this means. Hippos even have membranes that cowl and shield their eyes whereas they’re underwater.
At 5 to 7 years previous, a hippo calf is absolutely mature, in keeping with the San Diego Zoo. The common life span of a hippo within the wild or in captivity can vary from about 40 to 61, in keeping with the College of Michigan’s Animal Range Internet.
Associated: What animal has the longest being pregnant?
Assaults on people
The hippopotamus is taken into account the world’s deadliest massive land mammal. These semiaquatic giants kill an estimated 500 folks per 12 months in Africa, in keeping with the BBC. Hippos are extremely aggressive and are well-equipped to ship appreciable injury to something that wanders into their territory.
For instance, in 2014, a hippo attacked a small, unsuspecting boat crammed with Nigerian college youngsters, killing 12 college students and one trainer on board, ABC Information reported. Conflicts between people and hippos additionally happen when hippos wander onto land seeking meals.
Conservation standing
In line with the Worldwide Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the widespread hippo is not endangered, however it’s weak to extinction. The IUCN estimates that between 115,000 and 130,000 widespread hippos stay within the wild. Poaching and habitat loss decreased the hippo’s international numbers through the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, however the inhabitants has since plateaued due to stricter legislation enforcement, in keeping with the IUCN.
Invasive hippos
Infamous drug lord Pablo Escobar famously saved hippos, giraffes, elephants and different unique animals on his property in northwestern Colombia. When Escobar was killed in 1993, the Colombian authorities seized all of his belongings, together with his menagerie. Most of his animals had been transferred to zoos and aquariums, however his 4 hippos had been left to fend for themselves. These 4 animals made their approach into Colombia’s waterways, the place they multiplied.
An estimated 80 hippos now inhabit the river networks close to Medellín, Colombia, the place Escobar’s Hacienda Nápoles property was situated, Stay Science reported in October 2021. Wildlife officers in Colombia started sterilizing the hippos in 2021, as a result of this invasive inhabitants poses a risk to the group, in that the huge beasts sometimes trample crops and cost at people. The hippos additionally threaten native wildlife populations and their presence degrades the native ecosystem, as every particular person hippo gobbles down dozens of kilos of vegetation an evening and generates formidable portions of poop.
Nonetheless, many Colombians have grown keen on the uninvited ungulates and vehemently oppose their elimination. Some scientists, although, worry that the animals’ continued presence may have unintended penalties. “The danger to native species — equivalent to manatees, turtles and fish — is excessive, and the environmental impact is unpredictable,” Nelson Aranguren-Riaño, biologist at Pedagogical and Technological College of Colombia, mentioned in a assertion.
Further assets and readings
Bibliography
AFP. (2014, November 19). 13 folks, together with 12 youngsters, killed in Hippopotamus assault. ABC Information. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.abc.internet.au/information/2014-11-20/hippopotamus-attack-kills-13-in-boat-in-niger/5904646
African Wildlife Basis. (n.d.). Hippopotamus. African Wildlife Basis. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.awf.org/wildlife-conservation/hippopotamus
BBC. (2016, June 15). What are the world’s deadliest animals? BBC Information. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.bbc.com/information/world-36320744
Dudley, J. P., Grasp’Ombe, B. M., Leendertz, F. H., Dorward, L. J., Castro, J., Subalusky, A. L., & Clauss, M. (2015). Carnivory within the widespread hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius: implications for the ecology and epidemiology of anthrax in African landscapes. Mammal Assessment, 46(3), 191–203. https://doi.org/10.1111/mam.12056
IUCN. (n.d.). Hippopotamus. IUCN Crimson Record of Threatened Species. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from http://www.iucnredlist.org/particulars/10103/0
Nationwide Geographic. (n.d.). Hippopotamus: Nationwide Geographic. Nationwide Geographic. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/info/hippopotamus
Public Broadcasting Service. (2020, July 9). Hippo reality sheet. PBS. Retrieved February 11, 2022, from https://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/weblog/hippo-fact-sheet/
San Diego Zoo. (n.d.). Hippo. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Animals and Crops. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/hippo
San Diego Zoo. (n.d.). Pygmy hippopotamus. San Diego Zoo Wildlife Alliance Animals and Crops. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://animals.sandiegozoo.org/animals/pygmy-hippopotamus
UC San Diego. (2018, April 26). A drug lord and the world’s largest invasive animal. UC San Diego Information Middle. Retrieved February 4, 2022, from https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/function/a-drug-lord-and-the-worlds-largest-invasive-animal
This text was final up to date on Feb. 14, 2022 by Stay Science employees author Nicoletta Lanese. Stay Science contributor Annie Roth additionally contributed reporting.
Initially printed on Stay Science.
