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Being semi-aquatic, hippos are built for life in the water. Their ears, eyes, and nostrils are located on top of their heads, allowing them to see, hear, and breathe while remaining mostly underwater.
While hippos rest near each other in the water, grazing is a solitary activity and hippos typically do not display territorial behaviour on land. Hippos are among the most dangerous animals in the world due to their aggressive and unpredictable nature. They are threatened by habitat loss and poaching for their meat and ivory (canine teeth).
The outer epidermis is relatively thin, so hippos dehydrate rapidly in dry environments. [1] Both the incisors and canines are large and tusk-like, although the canine tusks are by far the larger. The tusks grow throughout life. The postcanine teeth are large and complex, suited for chewing the plant matter that comprises their diets.
At birth, pygmy hippos weigh 4.5–6.2 kg (9.9–13.7 lb) with males weighing about 0.25 kg (0.55 lb) more than females. Pygmy hippos are fully weaned between six and eight months of age; before weaning they do not accompany their mother when she leaves the water to forage, but instead hide in the water by themselves. The mother returns to the ...
Size wise, the two hippos look different, but they do share some similarities. Both Pygmy and Nile Hippos are nocturnal. They also have similar diets; they are herbivores and eat things like ...
When fighting, male hippos use their incisors to block each other's attacks and their large canines to inflict injuries. [ 9 ] : 260 When hippos become over-populated or a habitat is reduced, bulls sometimes attempt infanticide , but this behaviour is not common under normal conditions. [ 65 ]
The video showed the zookeeper tossing pumpkins into the waiting mouths of a pair of hippos. Hippos can range in weight from 2,200 pounds to 9,000 pounds, according to the Philadelphia Zoo.
Like the modern pygmy hippopotamus (Choeropsis liberiensis), the Malagasy pygmy hippo had eyes on the side of its head rather than high orbits and teeth of the common hippopotamus. The Malagasy pygmy hippo was similarly less aquatic, with many of its fossils found in the forested highlands of Madagascar .