Hippo biography

During the dry season, the dominant male chooses a partner, and then the other males fight each other for the remaining females. After an eight-month gestation period, at the height of the wet season, female hippos give birth to one calf at a time, either on land or underwater. Afterwards, mothers leave the herd for a short period of time to bond with their calves underwater.

Mother hippo biography and calf. Hippopotamus habitats are infringed upon by humans, who use their grazing land for farming and also divert water for farming needs. War in the regions that hippos inhabit has also wreaked havoc on hippopotamus populations. Finally, poachers kill hippos for their ivory tusks and for sport. Encourage others to boycott these products as well.

Hippos live in sub-Saharan Africa. BBC News. Dudley, J. Carnivory in the common hippopotamus Hippopotamus amphibius: implications for the ecology and epidemiology of anthrax in African landscapes. Mammal Review46 3— National Geographic. Hippopotamus: National Geographic. Public Broadcasting Service. Hippo fact sheet. San Diego Zoo.

Pygmy hippopotamus. UC San Diego. A drug lord and the world's largest invasive animal. This article was last updated on Feb. Live Science contributor Annie Roth also contributed reporting. Spotted hyena found in Egypt for 1st time in 5, years — then trackers killed it with a pickup truck. Trending Auroras predicted for weekend New form of magnetism Neanderthals' blood type China's 'artificial sun' Diagnostic dilemma.

Jump to: Size Habitat and behavior Hungry, hungry hippos Baby hippos Attacks on humans Conservation status Invasive hippos Additional resources and readings Bibliography. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors. Alina Bradford. Social Links Navigation. Alina Bradford is a contributing writer for Live Science.

Over the past 16 years, Alina has covered everything from Ebola to androids while writing health, science and tech articles for major publications. Proceedings of the Geologists' Association. Bibcode : PrGA. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. Naturalis Historia. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved 14 July Retrieved 13 November Smithsonian Magazine.

Retrieved 23 January Retrieved 14 November National Geographic News. Archived from the hippo biography on 20 February Retrieved 11 September Toronto Star. Wildlife Conservation Society. Retrieved 25 November New Scientist. Retrieved 26 April The Telegraph. Retrieved 18 January Isotopes in Environmental Health Studies. Bibcode : IEHS Journal of Comparative Neurology.

African Journal of Ecology. Bibcode : AfJEc. Scientific Reports. Bibcode : NatSR. South African Journal of Wildlife Research. African Zoology. Archived from the original PDF on 17 June Bibcode : EtEcE. Archived from the original on 6 March Retrieved 11 July Current Biology. Bibcode : CBio Archived PDF from the original on 9 October The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

Bibcode : ASAJ. Emerson November General and Comparative Endocrinology. Carnivores of the World. Princeton University Press. The Serengeti lion: A study of predator—prey relations. University of Chicago Press. Crocodiles and Alligators. Checkmark Books. The Transactions of the Zoological Society of London. Palgrave Macmillan. The Atlantic.

Retrieved 23 June The Korean Journal of Parasitology. Bibcode : QSRv Ancient Egypt. The American University in Cairo Press. The Histories. Oxford University Press, Incorporated. Yoruba Ritual: Performers, Play, Agency. Indiana University Press. Reaktion Books. Pete Thomas Outdoor. Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Smith, W. Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology.

Boston: Charles C. Natural History.

Hippo biography

Masks of Black Africa. Courier Corporation. Archived from the original on 28 July Retrieved 29 March The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hippopotamus amphibius. Wikiquote has quotations related to Hippopotami. Extant Artiodactyla species. Suborder Ruminantia. Pronghorn A. Okapi O. Northern giraffe G. Anhui musk deer M.

Water chevrotain H. Indian spotted chevrotain M. Java mouse-deer T. Family Cervidae. Bornean yellow muntjac M. Tufted deer E. European fallow deer D. Chital A. Barasingha R. Visayan spotted deer R. Thorold's deer C. Moose A. Water deer H. European roe deer C. Reindeer R. Taruca H. Red brocket M. Pampas deer O. Marsh deer B. Northern pudu P. Southern pudu P.

Peruvian Yungas pudu P. Mule deer O. Family Bovidae. Roan antelope H. East African oryx O. Addax A. Waterbuck K. Copulation can take place on land or in the water, and a pair will mate one to four hippos biography during an oestrus period. In captivity, pygmy hippos have been conceived and born in all months of the year. The common hippopotamus gives birth and mates only in the water, but pygmy hippos mate and give birth on both land and water.

Young pygmy hippos can swim almost immediately. At birth, pygmy hippos weigh 4. 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 hiding spot about three times a day and calls out for the calf to suckle.

Suckling occurs with the mother lying on her side. Although not considered dangerous to humans and generally docile, pygmy hippos can be highly aggressive at times. Although there have been no human deaths associated with pygmy hippos, there have been several attacks - while most of these were provoked by human behaviour, several have had no apparent cause.

The greatest threat to the remaining pygmy hippopotamus population in the wild is loss of habitat. The forests in which pygmy hippos live have been subject to logging, settling and conversion to agriculture, with little efforts made to make logging sustainable. As forests shrink, the populations become more fragmented, leading to less genetic diversity in the potential mating pool.

How often this occurs is unknown. Basel Zoo in Switzerland holds the international studbook and coordinates the entire captive pygmy hippo population that freely breeds in zoos around the world. Between and the population of pygmy hippos born in captivity more than doubled. The survival of the species in zoos is more certain than the survival of the species in the wild.

While the common hippopotamus has been known to Europeans since classical antiquitythe pygmy hippopotamus was unknown outside its range in West Africa until the 19th century. Due to their nocturnal, forested existence, they were poorly known within their range as well. In Liberia the animal was traditionally known as a water cow. Early field reports of the animal misidentified it as a wild hog.

Several skulls of the species were sent to the American natural scientist Samuel G. Mortonduring his residency in MonroviaLiberia. Morton first described the species in The first complete specimens were collected as part of a comprehensive investigation of Liberian fauna in the s and s by Dr. The first pygmy hippo was brought to Europe in after being captured in Sierra Leone by a member of the British Colonial Service but died shortly after arrival.

Pygmy hippos were successfully established in European zoos in President Calvin Coolidge. According to the zoo, Billy is a common ancestor to most pygmy hippos in U. Moo Deng is a pygmy hippo living in Khao Kheow Open Zooin Thailandwho gained hippo biography in September as a hippo biography Internet meme after images of her went viral online.

It has been reported that some visitors to the zoo threw water and other objects at the baby hippo to get her to react. Several folktales have been collected about the pygmy hippopotamus. One tale says that pygmy hippos carry a shining diamond in their mouths to help travel through thick forests at night; by day the pygmy hippo has a secret hiding place for the diamond, but if a hunter catches a pygmy hippo at night the diamond can be taken.

Villagers sometimes believed that baby pygmy hippos do not nurse but rather lick secretions off the skin of the mother. Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikispecies Wikidata item. Small species of hippopotamus. Conservation status.

Endangered IUCN 3. Morton[ 3 ]. Taxonomy and origins [ edit ]. Nigerian subspecies [ edit ]. Evolution [ edit ]. Extinct pygmy and dwarf hippos [ edit ]. Description [ edit ]. Behavior [ edit ]. Diet [ edit ]. Reproduction [ edit ]. Temperament [ edit ]. Conservation [ edit ]. History and folklore [ edit ]. References [ edit ]. Retrieved 27 August Retrieved American Society of Mammalogists.

Retrieved 26 August January International Zoo Yearbook. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. Keith The Hippos. London: Academic Press. ISBN Retrieved on Proceedings of the Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Bibcode : PNAS. PMC PMID Zoologica Scripta. S2CID Retrieved 7 December Oxford: Oxford University Press.