Hippos
Species: Hippopotamus amphibius
Diet: Herbivore
Height: Up to 5.2 feet at the shoulder
Weight: 3,000 to 9,000+
Origin: Africa
Group Name: Herd
Personality: Can be aggressive
Life Span: Near 30 years
Hi, I'm Henry and I'm a Hippopotamus, Hippo for short. I am a mammal and a water lover from Africa.
Hippos like me can get quite big. Females are usually around 3,000 pounds, but males can get to be over 9,000 pounds! We are pretty tall too, being able to get to 5 foot 2 inches at our shoulders.
We do get aggressive sometimes, so it's best not to approach us as we get nervous when something blocks our way to the water if we happen to be on land or if we feel threatened we could hurt somebody. So looking at us from afar is best.
Being water loving animals, we were created to have our eyes, ears and nose have the ability to be above the surface of the water while they rest of our body is under water. See?
Diet: Herbivore
Height: Up to 5.2 feet at the shoulder
Weight: 3,000 to 9,000+
Origin: Africa
Group Name: Herd
Personality: Can be aggressive
Life Span: Near 30 years
Hi, I'm Henry and I'm a Hippopotamus, Hippo for short. I am a mammal and a water lover from Africa.
Hippos like me can get quite big. Females are usually around 3,000 pounds, but males can get to be over 9,000 pounds! We are pretty tall too, being able to get to 5 foot 2 inches at our shoulders.
We do get aggressive sometimes, so it's best not to approach us as we get nervous when something blocks our way to the water if we happen to be on land or if we feel threatened we could hurt somebody. So looking at us from afar is best.
Being water loving animals, we were created to have our eyes, ears and nose have the ability to be above the surface of the water while they rest of our body is under water. See?
Pretty cool huh? We can go under water all the way too and stay there for about five minutes before we need to come back up to the surface to get air.While under the water our nostrils close and our eyes have a membrane that protects our eyes and we can still see underwater.
We can also sleep underwater. We can even get air without waking up! How? When sleeping we can bob up to the top of the water to get air and come back down and not even wake up! We really love being in the water!
One thing we don't do in water though, is swim. I know, I know that sounds funny, but we tend to stay in shallow rivers, so we don't need to swim, we just kind of hang out in the water and walk around in the water, so it's kind of like a dog paddle motion, or just slow motion walking.
We also have little Hippo cousins too called a Pygmy Hippos. See one in the picture below? Isn't she cute? Her name is Samanatha.
She has a profile card too, like mine above. Check hers out below:
We can also sleep underwater. We can even get air without waking up! How? When sleeping we can bob up to the top of the water to get air and come back down and not even wake up! We really love being in the water!
One thing we don't do in water though, is swim. I know, I know that sounds funny, but we tend to stay in shallow rivers, so we don't need to swim, we just kind of hang out in the water and walk around in the water, so it's kind of like a dog paddle motion, or just slow motion walking.
We also have little Hippo cousins too called a Pygmy Hippos. See one in the picture below? Isn't she cute? Her name is Samanatha.
She has a profile card too, like mine above. Check hers out below:
Species: Choeropsis liberiensis
Diet: Herbivore
Height: About 3 feet tall
Weight: 600 pounds
Origin: Africa
Personality: Shy but can defend itself well
Life Span: Around 27 years
Samantha's species is a bit different from mine in that she is smaller than me and she is shy and doesn't like to live in groups like my species does. She also likes to live in forested areas and likes the water a bit less than my species does. Though when her species is in the water, their noses can close off like ours do. Samantha's species also has longer legs and their feet are not as webbed as ours are.
One thing that both my species and Samantha's species have is the ability to make our own sunscreen! We make this stuff called Blood Sweat, it looks like blood and comes out like sweat. This Blood Sweat keeps our skin from drying out and also protects us from the sun so we don't get a sunburn. It also has the ability to protect us from bacteria. It's pretty great!
Pygmy Hippos like Samantha have smoother skin than the larger Hippos like me.
This Blood Sweat is great when we're out sun bathing during the day on the ground. We will chill out on land or in the water most the day and wait for the night to come so it is cooler. That is when we usually go and find something to eat. What do we eat?
Pygmy Hippos like Samantha have smoother skin than the larger Hippos like me.
This Blood Sweat is great when we're out sun bathing during the day on the ground. We will chill out on land or in the water most the day and wait for the night to come so it is cooler. That is when we usually go and find something to eat. What do we eat?
We are herbivores, which means we eat plant based foods. Like grass, leaves and fruit . We have good hearing so when we're traveling through the night to find food-and we do travel a long way sometimes-we can hear fruit fall from the trees. We also have a good sense of smell too and that helps us find the fruit that has fallen. We eat about 88 pounds of food a night.
Our Pygmy cousins are also nocturnal and like to eat leaves, roots and fruit.
When Hippo moms have babies they are pregnant around 8 months for Large Hippos and 6-7 months for Pygmy Hippos. Both species have 1 baby at a time, with the Pygmy sometimes having 2 calves at a time. Large Hippo babies are around 50-100 pounds when they're born! That's a big baby! Pygmy Hippo babies are only around 7-14 pounds at birth. So we're quite different in size at birth. Large Hippo moms will leave their herd when they are ready to have their baby. She can have her baby underwater or on land. She then spends time with the baby for a couple weeks before returning to the herd. She will nurse her baby for around 8 months.
Pygmy Hippo moms have their baby usually on land and actually will hide her baby in vegetation while it is very small to protect it. She does this when she feeds. Her baby grows fast though and is soon able to walk just fine with mom. Mom will nurse her baby for around 6-8 months.
Large Hippos live around 35-50 years, while Pygmy Hippos live around 25-40 years.