Hippopotamus Facts

About the hippopotamus

Its name comes from Ancient Greek words meaning river horse. Bulls average about 1.5 t and cows about 1.3 t, carried on short legs under a barrel-shaped, nearly hairless body. The mouth opens extremely wide and holds large canine tusks. Despite looking a bit like pigs, hippos are most closely related to whales, dolphins and porpoises, having split from them about 55 million years ago.

Rivers, lakes and mangrove swamps are home. Each territorial bull watches over a stretch of water plus five to thirty cows and calves, and both mating and birth happen in the water. Days are spent cooling off in water or mud, and at dusk hippos come out to graze on grass, alone. Their aggressive, unpredictable temper makes them one of the deadliest animals on the planet.

Did you know?

• The only other living member of the hippo family is the pygmy hippopotamus.
• Hippos are the largest living land artiodactyls, the even-toed hoofed group.
• Poachers hunt hippos for meat and for the ivory in their canine teeth.