Are you curious to learn some weird and wonderful facts about hippos?
If so, excellent! You are in exactly the right place my friend…
It’s time to chat about hippo facts.
Let’s dive right in…
Facts About Hippos
1 – The word “hippopotamus” comes from Ancient Greek for “river horse.”
2 – Hippos are the 3rd largest land mammal, after elephants and white rhinos.
3 – Hippos can be found in Africa and Asia and can be found in lakes, rivers, or swamps.
4 – A hippo’s skin is thicker than an elephants, but thinner than a rhinoceros’. Their skin is so tough that it’s difficult for predators to penetrate it with teeth or claws.
5 – There are only about 130,000-150,000 left in the world today due to habitat loss and poaching.
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6 – They are very aggressive animals and will attack humans if they feel threatened or provoked.
7 – The average weight for a male hippo is around 3,500 pounds while females weigh about 2,400 pounds.
8 – An adult male hippo’s length is usually 13 feet while an adult female hippo’s length is 11 feet.
9 – Baby hippos are born underwater and they swim to safety as soon as they’re born. These baby calves will stay with their mom for several years.
10 – They have excellent eyesight and hearing, but their sense of smell isn’t very good at all.
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11 – Hippos spend most of their time in water; they sleep submerged and will even give birth underwater if necessary.
12 – Hippos spend most of their day eating – they eat about five percent of their body weight every day.
13 – They can’t sweat to cool themselves down so they have to lie in water or mud when it’s hot outside.
14 – The average hippo lives for 30 years but some have been known to live up to 50 years old.
15 – Hippos have two sets of teeth – a set for eating grasses and another for eating meat that they scavenge from nearby kills or hunt themselves. Male hippos use their teeth as weapons against each other and females will sometimes butt heads with males during mating season.
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16 – Females typically give birth once every three years after reaching adulthood; males are ready to mate by age 8-10.
17 – Female hippos can produce milk without having given birth before, which makes them an excellent surrogate mother for other animals’ young!
18 – They are herbivores and can eat up to 40 pounds of food a day.
19 – They live in groups of 10-30 members called a pod. A group of hippos is called a pod, while an individual one is called a bull or cow. They are also run up to 30 km/h, despite their large, stocky shape and short legs.
20 – A baby hippo is called a calf, and they stay with their mothers until they are three years old. Female hippos have four nipples which provide milk for the calves while the mother eats vegetation such as leaves, roots, bark, fruit, mosses, lichens and grasses.
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21 – Female hippos typically give birth every 3 years and have a gestation period of 8 months
22 – Hippos spend up to 16 hours per day eating grasses, fruit, bark, leaves and other plants near rivers or lakes. They can eat up to 35kg of grass in a day.
23 – There are main two species of hippo, the common hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) and pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis).
24 – Hippos have the strongest bite force of any mammal. They can live in both fresh and salt water and their eyes, nose and ears are located on the top of their head so they can still see and breathe even when they are submerged in the water.
25 – A hippo needs to come up to the top of the water every 3-5 minutes to breathe. They do this naturally even when they are sleeping underwater. They will pop up and breathe without even waking up.
