Facts Sheet

" Hippopotamus " means " river horse " in Greek.
Male hippos can be up to 15 feet long, 5 feet high, and 8,000 pounds in weight, making them one of the largest terrestrial mammals. Only elephants and some white rhinos are larger.
At birth a hippopotamus weighs 30 - 60 kg, and it takes 4 to 5 years to reach maturity and a weight of 3600 kg.
Hippo lips are about 2 feet wide.
Hippos can turn each ear in a different direction at the same time.
A bull hippos' bellow has been measured at 115 decibels.
Hippos cannot float because their heavy muscles weigh them down and cause them to sink. This does not present a problem, since they can either paddle to stay afloat or simply walk along the river bottom.
Feeding always occurs on land. However, courtship, birth and nursing takes place underwater.
Adult hippos can stay underwater for five to six minutes. However, baby hippos can only stay underwater for twenty seconds.
Few animals can open their mouths as wide as hippos can. They use this ability to scare away other animals.
Around the turn of the eighteenth century, hippo tusks were used to make artificial teeth.
When hippos fight each other, they use their teeth, toss water at each other, accost each other with a variety of sounds and swing their massive heads together.
Although all hippos are herbivores and would rather run away than fight, several hundred people a year do not survive a close hippo encounters. In addition, hippos are more deadly than many feared predators, including lions.
An angry hippo can run much faster than a human; they have been clocked in shorting running dashes at 30 mph.
Mother hippos often form nurseries for up to 40 young hippos on sandy beaches near the water. When traveling, females keep the youngsters in a single-file line behind them.
Mother hippos have been known to kill lions and bite crocodiles in half.
It is speculated that gases produced during digestion from fermentation are passed out through a hippo�s nostrils.