The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius) has its ears, eyes and nostrils placed on the skull in the perfect position for them to keep the bulk of their large bodies submerged during the heat of the day, helping to prevent dehydration and overheating, while still being able to keep an eye and ear out for threats.
Despite common belief, Hippo’s are actually nocturnal grazers that spend much of the night feeding on grasses. While they will only travel as far as they need to in search of food, they are well known for traveling some tens of kilometres in search of suitable grazing which often brings them into close proximity to human settlements.
They have a natural instinct to run to their water safety zone when threatened and with these human settlements utilising the waters edge early in the mornings for washing and drinking water, this often creates situations where in the Hippo’s attempt to get back to the water, humans get trampled and killed. Unfortunate deaths such as these mean that the Hippopotamus has been given the title of “the animal that causes the most human deaths of all animals in Africa”…
When sitting at what seems to be a lifeless waterhole, it’s always worth watching carefully for a few minutes as a fully submerged resting Hippo will only break the surface with it’s nostrils every 5 to 6 minutes.
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