Hippopotamus Facts

Of those four, two different species of Madagascan Dwarf Hippopotamus are thought to have gone extinct some one thousand years ago.

Today the African continent is home to the two remaining Hippopotamus species, The Pygmy Hippopotamus (Hexaprotodon liberiensis) and the Common Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius).

Their range extends to most areas of Sub-Saharan Africa with a reliable shallow water river system, although Eastern Africa hosts a more substantial population than West Africa.

The Pygmy hippopotamus range is limited entirely to West Africa (Liberia, the Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso).

Here are some additional hippopotamus facts.

• The name pygmy hippopotamus might be a misnomer. Standing three feet tall at the shoulder, about five and one-half feet long, and weighing in at up to six hundred pounds, they are not small animals.
• The male common hippopotamus measures in at up to thirteen feet long, five feet tall and six thousand pounds, making it a whale of a big animal. Females are about one-half the size of males.
• Speaking of whales, scientists recently discovered that the hippopotamus is genetically related to whales, leading them to suggest combining the whale order with the even-toed ungulate order.
• A group of hippos is called a bloat.
• In prime environmental conditions hippopotamus bloats can reach up to sixty individuals.
• After elephants and white rhinoceros, the hippopotamus is the world's third largest land animal.
• Hippopotamus spend most of the day in and around the water. During the night, they travel away from the water's edge to forage on grass.
• Being large and aggressive animals, hippopotamus have few predators in the wild except for man.
• Baby hippopotamus are called calves and they are born underwater.

© 2010 Patricia A. Michaels