Hippos (Hippopotamus amphibious)
• Hippos live at the rivers, lakes, swamps, and wallows of Africa.
• Hippos are Barrel-shaped, blue-grey body with pink belly, large head, stumpy legs.
• Hippos have lived in Africa for thousands of years. They are social creatures preferring to live in larger groups or “Pods” where they establish a hierarchy based on male dominance.
• The Hippopotamus, whose name means "river horse", is a plant-eating water-loving giant.
• 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.
• 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!
• Hippos have huge mouths and teeth, even though they eat grass. A bull hippo's canines can grow to 28 inches long, and their mouths can open four feet wide!
• Hippo-Talk? Hippos make a of variety grunts, growls, screams and other sounds underwater to communicate with each other!
• 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.
• They are never far from water! When they venture out of a river or lake you might think you were looking at a very large cow
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