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Hippopotamus 1/3
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Hippopotamus Amphibius, Hippopotamus, Seekoei, Nilpferd.
 Description
The hippopotamus is the most dangerous land mammal of Africa. Although many
people believe it to be a gentle creature, when on land, it will crush all that
is in its way like a bulldozer. The skin of the hippopotamus is dark grey,
sometimes brown due to mud, smooth and naked and around the eyes and lips pink.
The hippopotamus has an enormous head with a muzzle of up to 50 centimetres wide
and a huge mouth in which the upper and lower canine teeth and incisors are
enlarged into enormous tusks. The eyes and ears are relatively small, giving the
hippopotamus its gentle look, set far and high on the head. The neck is very
short and thick with heavy folds of skin, especially with the more mature bulls.
The body has a barrel shape, carried on short stocky legs. Each foot has four
toes with thick nails. The hippopotamus has a short tail and is fringed at the
end with bristlets. Males have shoulder heights up to 170 centimetres while
females will only reach up to 160 centimetres. The males can weigh up to 2 000
kilogramms and females up to 1 700 kilogramms. The lower tusks can reach lenghts
of 31 centimetres with males and 20 centimetres with females. The females are
usually smaller than males and have less thick necks.
Habitat
The hippopotamus needs water with at least 150 centimetres depth
to be able to submerge to avoid overheating during the day. When
the water it is living in is brackish it will need a fresh water
supply in short distance as well. They prefer grassy areas in
the vincinity of the water to graze but are able to travel up to
30 kilometres at night to graze. In the Kruger National Park
they are usually found in the larger and more permanent rivers
and in the water reserves.
Diet
Up to 95% of the diet consists of grass. The hippopotamus has
the ability of finding grasses with a high nutritional value.
Under conditions of rare food shortages it will alternate to
water plants and even elephant dung, which is usually very rich
of fibers since elephants have a very inefficient digestion
cycle. The hippopotamus has been known to cause problems in
farmlands around the Kruger National Park foraging on farm crops
and showing up near private swimming pools and dams. They will
eat up to 13 kilogramms of grass every day.
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