Notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar famously kept hippos, giraffes, elephants and other exotic animals on his estate in northwestern Colombia. (Image credit: Photo by Juancho Torres/Getty Images) Conflicts between humans and hippos also occur when hippos wander onto land in search of food. Hippos are highly aggressive and are well-equipped to deliver considerable damage to anything that wanders into their territory.įor example, in 2014, a hippo attacked a small, unsuspecting boat filled with Nigerian school children, killing 12 students and one teacher on board, ABC News reported (opens in new tab). These semiaquatic giants kill an estimated 500 people per year in Africa, according to the BBC (opens in new tab). The hippopotamus is considered the world's deadliest large land mammal. Related: What animal has the longest pregnancy? Attacks on humans The average life span of a hippo in the wild or in captivity can range from about 40 to 61, according to the University of Michigan's Animal Diversity Web (opens in new tab). Hippos also have membranes that cover and protect their eyes while they are underwater.Īt 5 to 7 years old, a hippo calf is fully mature, according to the San Diego Zoo. When it dives, the calf closes its nose and ears to block out water. For its first eight months, the calf nurses while its mother is on land, or it swims underwater to suckle. At birth, the calf weighs between 50 and 110 lbs. Baby hipposįemale hippos have a gestation period of eight months and have only one baby at a time, according to the San Diego Zoo. If food is scarce, hippos can store food in their stomachs and go up to three weeks without eating.Īlthough hippos were long believed to be exclusively herbivorous, in a 2015 study published in the journal Mammal Review (opens in new tab), scientists reported that hippos occasionally feed on the carcasses of animals, including other hippos. They also eat fruit that they find during their nightly scavenging, according to National Geographic. (35 kg) of grass each night, traveling up to 6 miles (10 km) in a night to get their fill. Hippos have a healthy and mostly herbivorous appetite. (Image credit: Andreas Lippenberger/Shutterstock) Hungry, hungry hippos And they can stay underwater for up to 5 minutes without coming up for air, according to National Geographic. According to the San Diego Zoo, these animals glide through the water by pushing themselves off other objects. Though hippos move easily through the water, they can't actually swim. During a fight between two adults, a young hippo caught in the middle can be seriously hurt or even crushed, according to PBS (opens in new tab). Sometimes, their young fall victim to adult hippos' tempers. They have large teeth and tusks that they use for fighting off threats, including humans. Hippos are aggressive and are considered very dangerous. These booming creatures also use subsonic vocalizations to communicate. The animals' signature noise, called the "wheeze honk," can be heard from more than half a mile (1 kilometer) away, Live Science previously reported. Their snorts, grumbles and wheezes have been measured at 115 decibels, according to the San Diego Zoo - about the same volume you'd hear when 15 feet (4.6 m) from the speakers at a rock concert.
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