MAIN » ARTICLESHippopotamus Amphibious - a study
Everybody loves a good Hippo. Or do they? The Hippopotamus amphibious, the most well-known of the Hippopotamidae family is an extremely large and often aggressive animal, but is it just misunderstood - how much do we really know about this mysterious water-dwelling beast? Historically found throughout sub-Saharan Africa, they are now more often to be seen grazing the shores of rivers in the east including the Nile and its various smaller tributaries. Spending their time in deep waters, often in especially grassy and reed-laden areas, Hippos typically sleep during daylight hours and become more active at night, despite not being a strictly nocturnal animal. A muddy to slate brown in colour, the Hippopotamus amphibious is often said to resemble a water-slug, occasionally displaying a slight purple hue to their skin. A fully grown male can measure 1.5metres in height and be between 4 and 5 metres long, of which half a metre is tail. Favouring the sanctity of the water coupled with its strange active hours, safari-tourists may rarely get a good glimpse of these animals, with only their eyes and nostrils protruding from the water allowing them to see and breathe whilst otherwise submerged.
Like humans, the hippopotamus is capable of breeding all year round, but unlike humans they do experience seasonal peaks in February and August. These times mean that the birth of young will coincide with heavy months of rain, where it is assumed the new-borns will be most comfortable. For an animal that can walk on land, breathe like any other land animal and eats mainly terrestrial grass, nobody seems exactly sure why they spend so much of their time in and under water.
It is evident that this is not the only mystery surrounding an animal that was once said to sweat blood (before it was discovered the hippo’s sweat actually contained a red pigment, and wasn’t in fact blood at all). In August of 2002, authorities in Taiwan launched an investigation into the death of a day-old baby hippo in a Bangkok zoo. The hippopotamus species is not a rare sight in high-profile zoos around the world, but they can be expensive to care for and the killing of such a prized exhibit at the zoo has caused outrage and disbelief across Thailand. Whereas the death of the animal in one of Britain’s zoos may get a small mention in the column of a weekly tabloid, this particular incident was frontpage news in all major newspapers across the whole of Thailand, all of them featuring gruesome pictures of the dead calf. Reportedly bitten to death by adult hippos which were let into its cage, the killing has sparked police investigation into local groups who may have reason to discredit the head of the Bangkok zoo.
Hippos in their natural environment can be extremely aggressive and are considered to be one of Africa’s most violent and potentially dangerous animals. With large flesh-tearing canine teeth, dominant males fighting in the wild can often result in the death of one of those involved, with many more in the pack left with permanent scars. Losers are often sent into solitude and never seen again before they die. This latest act of violence was said to be deliberately initiated by the culprits who left a cage door open to allow the adult hippos in with the baby. Any animal that kills its own species is clearly an intelligent one, but where these hippos in fact in on the whole thing or just innocent victims? We may never know.
Incidents involving hippos and serious physical disturbance are not as isolated as you may think. Only one year earlier in southern Malawi in Africa, a bereaved hippo began to wreak havoc in local fields after wildlife officers shot and killed its partner. Local shied Mkumbira said at the time that if the hippo wasn’t killed, the area could experience severe food shortages. As already proved, trouble with hippos is not only limited to those in the wild, although they do seem to be perpetually linked with the actions of a human. A year before a crazed wildlife officer took a pot-shot at one of nature’s finest animals over in Malawi, a Ukrainian woman decided to climb into an enclose at a zoo in the city of Kharkiv. Having waded into their pool to amuse other visitors, the 18-year old Yelena Tkatchenko suffered serious injuries when attacked by one of the habitants of the enclosure who was extremely alarmed by the intrusion.
These kinds of incidents are not so synonymous with one of the hippos’ nearest cousins as they are becoming with the puzzling beasts themselves. DNA revelations within the last 5 years proved that the hippo is the nearest living relative of the standard whale. Scientists who tracked the evolutionary history of the animals found a close connection, which is still evident in many of their characteristics to this day. "Hippopotami and whales share several specialised aquatic adaptations, including lack of hair and sebaceous glands, and underwater vocalisations that are apparently communicative" writes Masato Nikaido in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A close relationship between whales and ungulates - hoofed animals - was first suggested 100 years ago, but until recently there has been little evidence to link whales with any particular group of ungulates. Whether the equivalent of the zoo attacks mentioned above occurs deep in the world’s oceans is unclear at this point. Reports that underwater zoos don’t exist seem to suggest they probably don’t.
Written by Jay
(c)2004 Justin King
Like humans, the hippopotamus is capable of breeding all year round, but unlike humans they do experience seasonal peaks in February and August. These times mean that the birth of young will coincide with heavy months of rain, where it is assumed the new-borns will be most comfortable. For an animal that can walk on land, breathe like any other land animal and eats mainly terrestrial grass, nobody seems exactly sure why they spend so much of their time in and under water.
It is evident that this is not the only mystery surrounding an animal that was once said to sweat blood (before it was discovered the hippo’s sweat actually contained a red pigment, and wasn’t in fact blood at all). In August of 2002, authorities in Taiwan launched an investigation into the death of a day-old baby hippo in a Bangkok zoo. The hippopotamus species is not a rare sight in high-profile zoos around the world, but they can be expensive to care for and the killing of such a prized exhibit at the zoo has caused outrage and disbelief across Thailand. Whereas the death of the animal in one of Britain’s zoos may get a small mention in the column of a weekly tabloid, this particular incident was frontpage news in all major newspapers across the whole of Thailand, all of them featuring gruesome pictures of the dead calf. Reportedly bitten to death by adult hippos which were let into its cage, the killing has sparked police investigation into local groups who may have reason to discredit the head of the Bangkok zoo.
Hippos in their natural environment can be extremely aggressive and are considered to be one of Africa’s most violent and potentially dangerous animals. With large flesh-tearing canine teeth, dominant males fighting in the wild can often result in the death of one of those involved, with many more in the pack left with permanent scars. Losers are often sent into solitude and never seen again before they die. This latest act of violence was said to be deliberately initiated by the culprits who left a cage door open to allow the adult hippos in with the baby. Any animal that kills its own species is clearly an intelligent one, but where these hippos in fact in on the whole thing or just innocent victims? We may never know.
Incidents involving hippos and serious physical disturbance are not as isolated as you may think. Only one year earlier in southern Malawi in Africa, a bereaved hippo began to wreak havoc in local fields after wildlife officers shot and killed its partner. Local shied Mkumbira said at the time that if the hippo wasn’t killed, the area could experience severe food shortages. As already proved, trouble with hippos is not only limited to those in the wild, although they do seem to be perpetually linked with the actions of a human. A year before a crazed wildlife officer took a pot-shot at one of nature’s finest animals over in Malawi, a Ukrainian woman decided to climb into an enclose at a zoo in the city of Kharkiv. Having waded into their pool to amuse other visitors, the 18-year old Yelena Tkatchenko suffered serious injuries when attacked by one of the habitants of the enclosure who was extremely alarmed by the intrusion.
These kinds of incidents are not so synonymous with one of the hippos’ nearest cousins as they are becoming with the puzzling beasts themselves. DNA revelations within the last 5 years proved that the hippo is the nearest living relative of the standard whale. Scientists who tracked the evolutionary history of the animals found a close connection, which is still evident in many of their characteristics to this day. "Hippopotami and whales share several specialised aquatic adaptations, including lack of hair and sebaceous glands, and underwater vocalisations that are apparently communicative" writes Masato Nikaido in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. A close relationship between whales and ungulates - hoofed animals - was first suggested 100 years ago, but until recently there has been little evidence to link whales with any particular group of ungulates. Whether the equivalent of the zoo attacks mentioned above occurs deep in the world’s oceans is unclear at this point. Reports that underwater zoos don’t exist seem to suggest they probably don’t.
Written by Jay
(c)2004 Justin King