The word hippopotamus comes from the ancient Greek ‘hippopotamus’, hippo- “horse”. Thus hippopotamus means horse of the River.
A male hippopotamus is called fen vale-cow and a baby hippo is called a calf. Hippos socially live in a group of 30.
The hippopotamus has a “torso” that is shaped like a barrel, a very big mouth and teeth, and almost hairless body, short legs and great size. It is the third largest land mammal, judging by weight which is about 1.5 and 30 tons following the white Rhinos as the second and the elephant respectively.
Even though the hippo has short, fat legs, it can run more quickly than a human being. Some hippos run at 30 km/hr.
The hippopotamus is one of the fiercest animals in the world. It is often called the most dangerous animal in Africa. These are about 125,000 to 150,000 hippos in the Sub Saharan Africa.
Because hippos are so large, it is difficult to weigh them in the wild. Most adult male hippos weigh between 1500-1800 kgs. Females are usually smaller weighing between 1300-1500 kg (2900-3300 lb.).
Their main defense is the extremely strong mouth. They can grow to be 15 feet long.
The hippopotamus is semi-aquatic in that even though it usually lives on the land, it also spends great time in the rivers and lakes where males lead groups of 5 to 30 during daytime. They keep cool by staying in water or mud.
Hippopotamus graze on grass by themselves and rest together in the water. Despite being semi-aquatic and having webbed feet and adult hippo is not good for swimming nor can it float.
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